Devil In Disguise
by Celebi
Summary: Experiment 623 is caught while on the rampage, and to everyone's surprise, she developes an unusually strong liking for Stitch. Just how far will she go to get past the one lingering obstacle between her and Stitch's heart?
1. Aloha

Listen up, because I'm only going to say this once: I do not own _Lilo and Stitch_, or any of the characters used in this fic. They belong to Chris and Dean. The only exception is Experiment 623, whose original idea is owned by me.

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Chapter 1: Aloha

'Lilo!' a shrill voice called from the living room. 'Get in here, quickly!'

Lilo scooted down the hallway as fast as she could. 'What is it, Pleakley?'

Pleakley replied in a mock-calm tone. 'Oh, I just thought you'd like to know that _something_ is tearing up the streets downtown. It's all here on the news, and the worst part is, I'm missing my soap operas for it!'

Lilo ignored him and turned her attention to the television.

'…where everything is being destroyed. People have abandoned their attempts to stop the unknown force which is tearing apart the town, and have decided that fleeing is a better option. As far as we can tell, nobody has been hurt, although many people have been found confused and disorientated. They claim that the wreckage was caused by some sort of small animal, something like a koala…'

In the corner of the screen was a live film clip showing the awful state that some buildings were in. Many things were on fire, and it wasn't long before some flaming debris crushed the camera, cutting out the picture.

'Stitch!' Lilo cried, while running to the front door. 'Come on, we've got an experiment out there to catch!'

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A few minutes later they arrived in town, Stitch driving the red vehicle which used to be Nani's dune buggy. All they had with them was a reinforced experiment container held in place at the back of the car.

'All right, let's rock-a-hula, Stitch!' Lilo encouraged, getting out to release the container. While she did that Stitch started out looking for one of his 'cousins'. He climbed up a nearby wall to begin exploring the wrecked town, reverting to his original alien shape as he did so. It was one of Stitch's basic rules: when in doubt, use all four arms. Not that it mattered, there were no humans around to see.

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Lilo left the buggy and started to look around, holding the empty canister. She didn't have to look too hard, in this situation it was Stitch's job. Nearly everywhere was blocked off to her because of fire or a broken building, but for Stitch this wasn't a problem. Still, she did start to worry about him. They had no idea what kind of experiment this was, and so had been unable to bring along some of Jumba's gadgets. She looked around; not too much had been destroyed, but quite a few things had gone up in flames. She shook her head and reassured herself. Nothing could beat Stitch anyway, nothing ever had, with the possible exception of 627, and he was safe and dry as a pod where no water would ever reach him.

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Stitch's excellent hearing finally picked up something. He headed immediately in that direction, climbing down a wall and continuing on all sixes. An explosion went off nearby, and once the resonating blast stopped clouding his senses he could hear the creature even more: a few footsteps, and scattered breathing. He turned into an alleyway, knowing whatever it was lay around the next corner. He jumped out to confront it and growled.

For a few moments nothing happened. The experiment was facing away, and then it slowly turned around.

Stitch immediately recognised this experiment as a girl. She looked quite similar to Stitch, and most of her fur was a flaming reddish-brown, with a darker pattern of splotches on her back. The fur on her front and around her eyes was a rich golden yellow, and the skin inside her ear was pale tan. Her nose was a deep velvety brown.

She remained there, frozen, for some time. All four of her arms were extended too, along with brown spikes and red antennae which had the same yellow on the ends. Lots more fur grew at the top of her chest, which puffed it out a lot more than normal. Her ears were larger than his and were more petal-shaped, very pointy at the ends. More fur grew on her head in a tuft like a fringe, and under that between her black eyes was an unmissable feature: two short, pearly white horns. Each was only about 3 centimetres long, but they looked _very_ sharp.

Stitch thought that he should speak, but paused. He was sure that when she first turned around she looked fierce, but now her expression was relaxed and she seemed quite tame.

'Hello,' he tried, expecting her to attack, or fly into another rage, but instead she simply walked over and looked at him with her head on one side and her eyes questioning.

'Hello,' she repeated, her voice the same as Stitch's but higher.

'Um… Lilo!?' he yelled, hoping she was nearby. Within a few seconds she reached them.

'Hey, great, you found it!' she said, opening the container. 'Er… didn't you have to fight it, or anything?'

'Naga,' he said, sounding quite surprised. Suddenly a great _thump_ shook the ground, followed by another.

'Oh no!' Lilo said. 'Gantu's coming! Quick, you,' she asked, gesturing to the newcomer experiment and holding out the tube, 'get in here, please.'

Stitch looked back at her in wonder. She was brown. Brown? Hadn't she been more reddish when he found her?

She looked at him with a questioning expression, as if asking whether she should do it.

'Ih,' he said to her. 'Go, please.'

In a flash she nipped inside the clear tube. Stitch carefully picked it up and closed the end, then carried it as he and Lilo ran back to the buggy.

'Hurry!' yelled Lilo, as the ground-shaking footstep grew closer. 'Gantu's getting closer!'

Stitch hurriedly attached the container with the new experiment inside it to the rear of the vehicle and hopped into the driver's seat.

The buggy started up and screeched off, but not soon enough. A green plasma blast hit the ground where they had been parked and shook the car.

Lilo turned in her seat. The brown experiment was behind her in the canister, sitting with her nose pressed against the glass and not looking scared at all. Behind that was Gantu, running up and following the buggy as it sped away. The buggy might have been fast, but it had to slow down to swerve around debris in the road and, after all, Gantu had very long legs.

'You! Abomination!' he shouted. 'Come back here with that… other abomination!' He was only just keeping up as Stitch drove the car as fast as he could, and Gantu fired two shots from his blaster. Stitch swerved to avoid them.

'Go home, Gantu!' Lilo yelled back. 'This one's coming with us, so we can find the one place that it belongs!'

Another plasma shot. 'I'd like to see you try!' Gantu retorted. 'That experiment is made only for destruction! You'll never find a home for it!'

Three shots. The last one was very close. Gantu was catching up.

'That's not true!' Lilo kept shouting. 'Experiments can do whatever they want!' she finished, stressing the last three words. With that, Stitch found an opening on the road and pulled ahead. Gantu finally ran out of breath and collapsed.

Back at Lilo's house, the three of them went up to Lilo's old bedroom to see Jumba about the analysis of the experiment.

'Oh, little girl, you are back,' he said as they entered. 'Which of my genius experiments have you brought back this time?' He had already switched on his computer and was sitting at his desk.

Lilo walked in and watched as Stitch and the new one came in. They both went to sit on the top bunk, Jumba's bed, while Stitch showed her where to go and she just looked at everything in wonder.

'Oh!' Jumba exclaimed. 'Experiment 623! I was wondering when she was going to turn up,' he turned to the computer and began typing in numbers.

'She?!' Lilo exclaimed. 'That's a _girl_?'

'Ih!' said Stitch from the bed, sounding rather annoyed.

'Aha! Here it is,' Jumba turned the computer towards them. It showed alien letters scrolling on one side and a diagram of the experiment in question, a simple picture which seemed elegant, but had more prominent horns depicted on the head.

'Experiment 623,' he explained, 'has potential to be most destructive of _all_ the experiments.'

'What? You mean, more destructive than Stitch!?' Lilo asked, just as Pleakley entered the room.

'Oh, you're back,' the one-eyed alien remarked. 'Is that it? That's the terrible force that was tearing up the town earlier?' He walked over to 623, still resting on the top bunk. Before anyone could stop him, he reached out a finger to tickle the experiment.

The reaction was immediate. Stitch looked in amazement as her fur went red again. She scowled at Pleakley and, quick as a flash, her teeth sunk into his hand.

'Yaaaaaaaaaaargh!' Pleakley screamed, whipping his hand away. She seemed amused at his reaction and laughed, as the redness drained from her body and it became brown again.

'Pleakley! Are you okay?' exclaimed Lilo.

Pleakley nursed his swollen finger. 'Well, it's not as bad as when the little monster chomped on my head.' He turned stiffly and walked out of the room.

Jumba coughed impatiently at being interrupted. 'Allow me to be continuing. 623's power comes from her anger. The angrier she is, the more destructive she gets. And believe me, is _very_ easy to make her angry.'

Lilo looked at the small brown experiment looking in wonder at the bed sheets.

'She's not being destructive now,' she observed.

'No, at the moment she is not being angry. But you see what happened to Pleakley? She got a little irritated,' Jumba paused and laughed. 'But do not underestimate 623. She did not work out as well as I had hoped. When she is very mad, has strength greater than 626's, can breathe fire, and cannot be reasoned with. Will go on great fiery rampage. Her purpose is to destroy just about everything, because she is so strong and many things are flammable. But there were problems. I found anger induced strength was far too unpredictable for proper use, and was no good for attacking cities. Buildings don't burn.' He laughed again and looked at the bed.

'That is why I made 626. He can destroy the cities and civilisation, and she tears apart everything more natural. 626 is not as strong as she _could_ be in right situation, but his power is there all the time, so is improvement.'

'Gantu said I'd never think of a home for her,' Lilo said. 'Because she's too destructive. But Stitch was too, and we found a home for him here, so I _know_ I'll be able to think of something for -,'

'Gaba?!' she was interrupted by 623 shouting from the bed.

'What's going on?' asked Lilo.

Jumba laughed. 'Stitch just told 623 about planet she has been activated on. She didn't like the fact that over 70% is covered by water.'

Lilo sighed. 'So she's afraid of water too?'

'Yes, of course, many experiments are. The molecular density of their bodies which makes them sink in water is due to their massive physical capabilities.' He saw that look that Lilo put on when she didn't understand a word. He sighed in desperation, 'All experiments with unnatural strength have muscles too dense to float. If it can pick up a car, would sink like stone.'

'But you said her strength is only there sometimes.'

'Ah, yes, is true. Perhaps 623 only sinks when she has her strength…but there is other problem. If this experiment reached maximum level of pure anger, might be too much power concentrated and could have big disaster!'

Lilo was scared now. 'Could it endanger the Earth?'

'No, no, not a problem for that. Is a danger to _her_. That much power could overload her body and it could shut down completely.' He paused and continued in a more relaxed tone, 'I have never thought it would actually happen though. To become that strong she must feel the most powerful anger that is possible. Such a feeling could only come out if it was found in a sincere place inside her, and be connected with something she cares about. I didn't worry because she isn't made to _care_ about _anything_,' he chuckled.

Lilo looked again at the brown furball sitting on Jumba's bed. She seemed more curious than angry, and was inspecting the light on the ceiling. She then walked across the ceiling to it and tried to eat it.

'I would suggest that you try and turn experiment to good first.' Jumba remarked. 'Before she eats anything else.'


	2. The Shining Path

I don't know that many alien words, but I'm trying to include some. I think that the way you spell those words doesn't matter really, since there are lots of words which nobody knows the true spellings of, I've spelled them the way I think is right.

And if you see whole sentences in italics, that means it's the alien language which has been translated.

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Chapter 2: The Shining Path

'Oh, Lilo!' Nani exclaimed. 'I thought we already settled this. I said no more experiments in the house.'

Lilo protested. 'But Nani! It's just for a little while. I'll find a home for her soon, but until then she needs somewhere to sleep. Please?'

'Just how long is she gonna stay here?' At this point Stitch and 623 walked into the kitchen where Lilo and Nani were talking.

'Well, I've got to think of a place where she belongs,' Lilo explained. 'And I've still got to name her… but before that, we've got to figure out a way to make her good. At the moment Stitch is trying to show her how to be good.'

They watched as Stitch demonstrated the correct way to find food. She watched as he opened the fridge, took out a carton of orange juice, and drank all of it in one go. He considered the empty carton for a few seconds, then chewed it up and swallowed it, thus teaching her another of Stitch's life rules: _always_ eat the container.

Nani looked at Lilo with concern. 'So if this thing's not good… doesn't that make it evil?'

'Don't worry about a thing, Nani,' was the determined reply. 'Stitch has it all under control and she'll be turned to good in no time.'

Stitch took 623 and they left the room. Nani didn't notice – she was worried about the safety of her Ohana, as well as the welfare of her personal belongings. Lilo hadn't exactly denied her accusation of that thing being evil… who knows what it might do?

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Stitch took 623 by the paw and led her across the living room to the sofa, ready to teach her about another important aspect of his life.

'Naptime,' he proclaimed, jumping onto a cushion and settling down to sleep. 623 did the same, but regarded him with confusion all the same. She twitched uncomfortably, how was she supposed to sleep? An almost overpowering instinct was telling her to jump up and burn the wooden bench to the ground, but she closed her eyes as the feeling was defeated by her will to do what Stitch asked her to.

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Meanwhile, Lilo was visiting Jumba in his room to ask for help.

'Why is it taking so long to make her be good? We had all those other experiments that stopped being destructive right after Stitch told them not to.'

'Maybe is luck of draw. The will of some experiments' cannot be broken so easily. Remember, I did not design these creatures to change immediately to good,' he chuckled.

'Don't you have any tips? Advice? Anything? We don't have many ideas of how to make something good.'

'All right, all right, I will tell little girl this. Remember that what you would call "evil" experiment is one which still obeys the original programming I set for it, and will pursue evil purposes. Experiment that is "good" is one which had been taught to ignore its instincts to destroy and can think for itself. Will make its own decisions based on what experiment itself wants to do, not what I told it to. If you want tip, try to give 623 opportunities to choose action for herself, and if she chooses good choice may speed up process. If she chooses to obey her programming to rip things apart, means is not completely good yet.'

Lilo frowned in thought. 'Maybe it would help if I got out the water bottle of karmic cleansing…'

Jumba grunted. 'Remember that experiment can still be unpredictable, even if is turned to good. 626 is considered to be good now, but even he gets out of control sometimes and claws things to shreds.'

Lilo nodded. 'Thanks, Jumba!' she called, running out of the room and back to the living room. 'Hey Stitch! I have some new ideas to –,' she stopped as she entered the room and saw the two experiments completely asleep on opposite ends of the couch. With a smile on her face she left them to their dreams and went to finish preparing 623's bed.

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The next couple of days went by in a rush. They kept 623 inside the house at all times and, thankfully, she didn't burn it to the ground. They managed to prevent her from using fireballs, but sometimes they would accidentally make her angry and she'd do hundreds of dollars worth of damage to whatever unfortunate object was within her reach. Lilo eventually gave up on making a bed for her; she was much happier just sleeping on the sofa. Lilo tried to think of all sorts of different ways to bring her to her senses, and she seemed to think quite clearly sometimes. Lilo felt that pretty soon she'd be completely good, so Stitch helped by telling her the story of how he had come to be on Earth.

'_So I pulled the truck to a stop, got in, and drove it straight into the lava. Then I pulled the side open and BOOM, I was shooting into the air and smashed into Gantu's ship…_'

'Naga!' she gasped.

'Ih!' he continued, and absent-mindedly put his tongue into his nose while he was thinking. She looked at him curiously until he realised and took it out, saying, 'Oh, sorry.' She thought for a moment, then stuck out her own tongue. It was orange and forked at the end, allowing her to reach into both nostrils at once. After trying it she giggled, and Stitch laughed, glad to have found another cousin who enjoyed the habit.

'Stitch?' Lilo interrupted. 'How's it going?' She stood over the two experiments, who were sitting on cushions. Stitch was in his dog disguise but they hadn't been able to convince the other to pull in her obviously alien parts.

'Good!' he replied.

'Is her English getting better?' she asked.

623 smiled at her and said, 'I like stories.'

'Great! Now Stitch, Nani's taking us out for pizza this evening.' Stitch stood up, ready to go. 'Hang on, there's a problem. She said that there's no way we're taking both of you guys with us, because just _one_ experiment can cause enough trouble as it is.' Stitch looked at 623, wondering what Lilo was trying to tell him. 'She also said that we can't leave _her_ here alone, because we don't know what she'll do. Basically, we're stuck with you two staying home this time.'

Stitch's ears drooped and he looked disappointed. 'Don't worry though!' she continued. 'I'll bring you both back some pizza. In a doggie bag!'

Jumba and Pleakley were leaving the house with Nani, so Lilo went over to her sister.

'Well?' the older girl asked.

'Stitch agreed to baby-sit,' she replied, glancing back as Nani left.

'Be _good_,' she advised, 'and whatever you do, _don't_ let her have any coffee,' she added as an afterthought, before following her sister and closing the door.

623 and Stitch were left alone in the house. She turned to him and asked innocently:

'Kata baka-dooka?'

As they came home Lilo ran ahead of the others and got to the door first. She opened it carefully and asked, 'Stitch? Is everything okay?'

A horrible scene met her eyes. Everything she could see was smashed or broken, except the TV. The walls and ceiling has claw marks in them. The sofa was on fire. Suddenly Stitch ran in, all four arms working, and threw a towel over the blaze to stifle it.

'Stitch?!' she cried, 'What's going on?! What happened?!'

'Stitch tried, Lilo…' he replied. 623 came into view, scampering along the ceiling. She whooped crazily and ran in, then settled her self in the lampshade and swung back and forth.

'I know that look,' said Lilo ominously. 'I told you not to give her any coffee!'

Stitch whirled around, now finding that he was the one to blame. 'Naga! She not have coffee!'

'Then what did you do?!'

Stitch brought out his two extra arms, which were holding two empty bottles of vinegar. Lilo knew they had been almost full when they left.

'Oh no…' Lilo despaired, covering her face with her hands. 'When Nani sees this she's gonna -,'

'LILO!' screamed Nani's voice from the doorway. The others were back. 'What happened?!'

'It wasn't Stitch's fault!' she started, protecting her friend. 'It looks like vinegar has the same effect on her as coffee does with -,'

'You then!' Nani yelled, pointing her finger at 623, who was halfway through eating the carpet, 'I've had enough of you! Get out!'

The severity of Nani's voice made her stop. She looked about in confusion, as if she had just woken up. Then she ran down the wall and climbed out of the window.

Lilo backed away and ran outside, grabbing Stitch's paw as she did so. She was intending to help clear up later, she just didn't want to be around while Nani was still angry. The two of them went around to the back of the house and looked for the disgraced experiment. They found her sitting on the steps, looking very upset.

'Hey,' said Lilo softly, sitting down beside her. 'Are you okay?'

'Soka,' she replied tearfully. The experiment's fur was a dull, lifeless brown. She bit her lip and looked like she might cry.

'It's alright,' Lilo tried to cheer her up. 'This happens with Stitch too, and Nani gets mad at us as well. She gets mad a lot.' It didn't seem to be helping. 'I know that sometimes, you can't help doing these things. But it's okay, really. Now we know that we've gotta keep you away from that stuff the same way as we keep Stitch away from caffeine.' 623 looked a little better now.

'I'll go and talk to Nani,' Lilo resolved. 'When we first got Stitch she wanted to throw him out too, and I had to remind her that he was still Ohana, even though we only got him that morning. All of Stitch's cousins are Ohana too, and that means that you won't be left behind.' She finished up and went back to the house to reason with Nani. The two experiments were left in silence.

Finally 623 raised her head. 'Ohana?' she asked.

'Family,' he explained.

'Cousin?'

Stitch's vocabulary was insufficient to answer in English, so he spoke his own language again. '_Everyone on the island calls each other cousin. Not because they are related, but because they feel like a big family. We may not be related, but we are cousins, because all of Jumba's experiments are family._'

She considered this for a moment and felt uplifted. For the first time, she had a family. A really big one. It was something that she was a part of, and nothing could ever change that. Suddenly a wash of calm spread over her and she was content. Her thoughts, which had previously been clouded with the urge to run off and begin a rampage, were clear and defined. She looked at Stitch again in amazement as Lilo came running back.

'Okay, I talked to Nani about it, and we came to an agreement.' Lilo's tone didn't exactly express that the agreement was fair. 'She wants 623 to stay outside for a while. And use this…' she held up the collar and metal chain that had once been used to confine Stitch. 623 just looked at her as if she was mad. Lilo explained, 'I think that if you stay out here, you can show Nani that you know how to behave. We tried it with Stitch once. I know you could easily break out, but if you can do it everyone will know that you can control yourself and I _know_ Nani will be okay with you. So will you try it?'

'Ih!' was the determined response.

They walked up the steps at the back of the garden to where the hammock was tied up. Lilo put the collar around 623's neck and attached the other end of the chain to one of the trees supporting the hammock.

'You can sleep in here tonight,' said Lilo, patting the fabric. 'We'll come and see you in the morning.' Lilo gave her some cold leftover pizza, then she and Stitch made their way back to the house to start clearing up. 623 tugged lightly on the chain to test it and jumped into the hammock. She lay down and was left only with her confused thoughts until she fell asleep.

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'I'm sorry, Lilo. I know I overreacted,' Nani said. 'But you know that we get enough damage around here with just one experiment. I think you'll have to find a home for her as soon as possible.'

'She was really upset yesterday,' replied Lilo. 'And I told you that it kinda wasn't her fault. Nobody knew that vinegar made her go psycho. I think you should go out there and talk to her.'

'Have Stitch talk to her,' Nani picked up her things, ready to leave. 'I've gotta go to work. He's the only one she listens to, anyway.'

She left the house and Lilo turned to Stitch. 'She's right, you should go see her. And take her breakfast up with you.' Lilo gave him a pineapple and he set off out to the back of the house. They had already discovered that 623 had a soft spot for pineapples. She seemed to like them almost as much as Stitch liked coconuts.

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623 was sitting behind one of the supporting trees, out of view of the house. She still had her collar on and was tethered to the tree, and seemed to be working on something. She heard Stitch as he left the house and realised that he was coming her way. Quickly she got up and jumped into the hammock, pretending to be asleep.

Stitch walked up and found her lying in the hammock. He wondered about her lying in this late and decided that all that destruction yesterday must have tired her out. He placed the pineapple carefully next to the tree where she would see it if she woke up and turned to leave, but stopped and took one last glance at her before he left.

'_She actually looks rather cute when she's sleeping,_' he thought, and smiled. Then he shook himself out of it and went back to the house.

As soon as her was far enough away, 623 popped open one yellow-ringed eye. She hoped he hadn't seen what she had been doing before he showed up. She jumped out of the hammock and went to get the pineapple. She could have eaten it in one bite, but instead she picked at it slowly and thought for a while. An idea surfaced in her mind. She finished off the pineapple and waited for a few more minutes, then heard everyone getting into the car and driving off. She decided that they must be going shopping somewhere, and everyone was gone. The house was now empty.

She had plenty of time to do it now. With minimal effort she bit clean through the chain tying her to the tree and made her way to the house. She took the shortest way in, through the window, and regretted breaking the deal she had made with Lilo. She carried on regardless, and went into Jumba and Pleakley's bedroom. She switched on Jumba's computer and searched through the experiment list until she found the one she hoped was there. Then she looked around the database, eventually pulling up the details of Gantu's crashed ship and researching him and his boss, Hamsterviel. Hurriedly she shut off the computer and went back outside. She went up the steps and passed under the hammock, pausing to look back on what she had been working on before Stitch had turned up. She shook her head and ran determinedly off into the forest behind.

The words on the trunk of the tree stood out where she had carved them earlier. The bark had proved to be no match for her nails. There in the wood of the palm tree was a large heart shape, and inside was written:

623

626


	3. Escape

To see pictures of 623 and such, go and check my profile please. There are links there.

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Chapter 3: Escape

623 focused all her energy on running. Everything she had done that day had worn her out, but she kept on running. Occasionally a stray twig or thorn scratched her sides and face, but she forced herself to ignore them. Suddenly a root loomed out f the shadows and she tripped up, falling forward and landing sprawled on the forest floor. She got up slowly, checking for damage. Finding that nothing was broken she then inspected a third arm which came out below her right shoulder. A tattered sheet was clenched in her paw – a little dirty now, but still readable. She clutched it inwards to her chest and used her upper arms to continue running.

Exhausted and a little wounded, she finally made it back to the lake. She started crossing it by hopping across the stones, trying to avoid the shallow water, even though it cleaned off the mud and soothed her cuts. Bit by bit she slowly made her way over to the huge, black shadow that was former Captain Gantu's ship.

The light was fading and evening was fast approaching. She knew this would have to be done quickly and got ready… but stopped. The ship's mechanism suddenly whirred into life and she darted away to the shadows behind the ship. From her hiding place she watched as the boarding ramp came down to ground level and Gantu stepped off it. He grumbled to himself as he pulled his blaster from its holster and went off into the woods.

623 breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't been caught and jumped onto the ramp and it closed up. Once the entrance was sealed she scuttled onto the ceiling and carefully dropped to the floor. Then she tentatively started walking into the ship.

'Well, well. Come back for more, eh?' a voice mocked her.

She scowled. 'Can it, 625,' she retorted in plain English.

'Okay, okay. Man, you're a feisty one.'

625 walked out while pretending to look bored.

'Are you going to help me now, or not?' she asked him. It was harder for her to talk because her voice was still squeaky, but it was still understandable.

'Did you bring what I asked for?' replied 625. She held out the slightly ripped piece of paper that she had gone through so much trouble to get. 'All right!' he whooped, reading the page with enthusiasm. 'The sandwich shop's secret sauce recipe! It's finally mine!'

'Do we have a deal?' she asked impatiently.

625 stopped jumping about and frowned. 'What exactly do you want me to do?'

She made him lead her to the main teleport pad while she explained.

'You must have seen Gantu use this loads of times. Just send me off to Hamsterviel, then stay here and accept the return teleport.'

'All right, but you'd better be quick. Let's just hope Gantu doesn't come back while we're doing this.'

'Where did he go?'

'Hamster-face sent him off to look for _you_. Again He's probably gone to sleep by now.'

623 stood on the teleport pad and told 625 to start up the machine. A glass tube descended from the ceiling and trapped her inside, followed by a blast of smoke. 625 finished up pressing buttons and watched as the teleportation began.

'Wish me luck,' she said hopefully, as a green spiral sucked her up and suddenly she was gone.

625 snorted. 'Good luck,' he said sarcastically.

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Lilo walked into Jumba and Pleakley's bedroom looking dejected. They had already searched the entire house for the missing experiment, but to no avail. She was wondering what had made the experiment leave, and why, when Jumba found her.

'Ah, little girl, I was meaning to ask: did you manage to turn to good this experiment we are looking for?'

'Well… I'm not sure. I thought things were going well, but… I don't know. Why?'

'Because if one of my creations had run away, will probably be trying to start destructioning again.'

'Oh no… we've gotta find her! But where would she go?' Lilo pondered.

'Hmmm… I am thinking experiment 623 will probably be burning things which are important to Earth people. Like fuel, for example.' Lilo was about to run off to search outside, but Jumba stopped her. 'I suggest we watch news on television. If she blows up any car fuel stations, that way we will know. Then you can rush off with 626 and be doing all the saving. Also I suggest watching skies. Pillars of smoke will probably give away her location. We just hope that forest does not burn to ground before you find her.'

She followed Jumba down to the living room while looking depressed until Stitch found her.

'You okay?' he asked.

They stayed alone in the hallway while she explained. 'I thought we were doing a good job with 623…but now she's gone, and Jumba thinks that she'll go and blow things up again.'

Stitch shook his head. '623 good.'

'Really? How do you know?'

He spoke a few words of his own language to get her to understand.

'Yeah. You're right. When I found you at the animal shelter, I knew you were good. And you turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to our Ohana. If you have that feeling too, then I trust it.' Lilo smiled at her friend, but as she looked away and glanced out of a window her smile faded. She watched as the sun sank behind the trees and wondered. What was going on?

--------------------

623 hovered over an electrical panel, not knowing what to do. So far, her luck had held, but Hamsterviel probably wouldn't stay asleep for much longer. Before her were many small cages, little rooms with a strong clear pane in front. Inside them were all the experiments captured by Gantu and sent to Hamsterviel; this was where they all ended up. She had examined the rooms already, searching for what she had come here for. Most of them were empty. Now she had the tool that would open up these cages – there were as many buttons as there were doors. But as to which button corresponded to which cell, she was lost.

Taking a chance, she pressed a button at random. One of the transparent doors slid up and she was relieved to see that the cage was empty. Some of the captive experiments had noticed and they had come to watch her at the front of their tiny rooms. She looked at the buttons again and her finger hung in the air over them. Suddenly the weight of what she was doing crashed down on her. Hamsterviel could come in at any moment and find her, then she'd live here… forever. He would make her do evil things… and to think that she had given up being free, and having a family… all of the tension and pressure was getting to her. Her anger started to mount – she wasn't made to tiptoe around and hide! She was supposed to blow things up – blow everything up! Her fur brightened up and turned red and she felt hot.

Then suddenly she stopped herself. She shouldn't be worrying about getting caught – but if she went ballistic in here she _would_ get caught. She closed her eyes to calm herself as she remembered her reason for doing this. Then she opened her eyes, watched the cages and pressed a button. Another door slid upwards and she inspected the room. It was in shadows and hard to see, but it looked empty. With a rush of adrenaline she saw it. She could see how the cages were arranged and which button activated them. Using the two already open doors to guide her, she pressed another button and with a satisfying sound the correct door opened up.

She ran forward, propelled by all the suppressed energy. All her thoughts were on completing this task and getting back to Earth. In the cage lay the sleeping form of a small purple bird. She picked it up as gently as she could manage and shot back to the teleporter, oblivious now to the noise she made in getting there. Some of the other experiments were making a din too, they wanted to be saved. She didn't spare them a look; this wasn't a rescue mission. Hurriedly she put the tiny bird on the pad and initiated the teleportation. For a few seconds she hoped that 625 hadn't fallen asleep, but then the little experiment was whisked away. She started the machine again and ran on to teleport herself, then sighed in relief as she again felt the swirling light pick her up.

625 was still stationed at the spaceship console, sitting with his head propped on one arm and using his other hand to poke lazily at the buttons. By some miracle he managed to get the incoming teleports to come through successfully. First the tiny bird appeared in the tube, then 623 materialised in the next one down. Once the glass case came up she rushed in to check on it.

'Oh, hey, cutie patookie, you're back.'

'I told you not to call me that,' she growled.

'Hang on, you went all that way to get _that_?' 625 scoffed.

623 ignored him and picked up her 'cousin'. Travelling molecularly had woken him up, so she held him firmly.

'Well, thanks anyway, 625.'

'You're welcome. Now get outta here before you run into Gantu.'

She carried her precious cargo out and 625 watched her leave. He wondered for a while what she was going to do with that, but soon enough all his thoughts were filled with sandwiches.

Meanwhile, in Hamsterviel's jail cell, something was happening. Inside one of the confinement chambers a creature moved in the shadows. One of the prisons that 623 had opened hadn't been empty after all. Now its occupant climbed out and looked around. It was free. The dark form ran across the room to the teleporter that had just been used.

In Gantu's ship, 625 had dozed off and lay drooling on the spaceship instruments. Something beeped and woke him up. A light was flashing on the control board.

'Aw, not another one…' he mumbled and hit a button with his fist to shut it up.

As he slept, the teleporter activated again. When the smoke cleared and the glass tube lifted, the escaped shadow crawled free. It narrowed its dark eyes and sought for a way to exit the ship, knowing it was back on Earth again…


	4. Found

I would appreciate it if people would refrain from flaming my about my pairings throughout this story. If you ant to criticise anything else, that's brilliant, and if you want to praise it, that's even better. I just won't care if I get flamed for my couples. Thanks for listening.

Oh, and check out my profile for all of my fanart regarding this. There's some stuff there you should check out.

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Chapter 4: Found

At the edge of the forest 623 paused and looked ahead. It was now well into the night, and before her stretched Lilo's Ohana's home. She gulped nervously and prepared herself for what she was about to do, still clutching her tiny cousin which she held behind her back.

Inside the house it was time for Lilo to go to bed. Nani was going to tell Lilo to go and get into her pyjamas when a voice called,

'626! Little girl! Larger girl!' Jumba yelled from the back of the house. Lilo happily scooted off to see him and Nani followed, finding Stitch already at Jumba's side when they arrived.

'What is it, Jumba?' asked Lilo. 'What's with all the yelling?'

'Look outside!' explained the large alien. 'I see 623 in bushes!'

4 heads appeared at the window as they all gazed out. Sure enough, 623 was visible, standing at the back of their yard between the hammock supporting trees.

'What is it doing?' questioned Nani. 'Is it coming back?'

They observed for a few more seconds. 623 was moving about, but not coming any closer to the house.

'I am not sure what 623 is doing,' Jumba said, perplexed. 'Perhaps someone should go and ask what is the matter.'

Everybody looked at Stitch.

'Huh…? Gaba? …Meega?!'

'It'll be okay, Stitch…' Lilo tried to comfort him. 'Just ask her what's going on or something. Ask her why she ran away.'

Putting on a vulnerable look, Stitch headed for the back door. They turned to the window again to watch his ascent up the path.

'I do not understand!' Jumba sounded angry at something that he was unable to comprehend. 'If 623 did not escape to wreak havoc on island, then why did she go?'

Outside Stitch climbed up the steps, ready for the confrontation. From inside everyone watched curiously. 623 heard someone approaching and stiffened, but her large ears analysed the footfalls and immediately reassured her that 626 was coming to see her. She had been planning to sneak into the house, but an improvisation would work just as well.

Stitch finally reached her and stopped to assess the situation. The two of them faced each other, neither saying a word. He could see two hands tucked behind her back while the other two arms were out in the open, and her small horns were glinting pearly white in the moonlight.

'Um… hello,' he said at last.

'Hello,' she repeated, walking over to him. They both smiled as they realised the resemblance to their first meeting. There was a pause.

Stitch didn't know what to do now. His thoughts were all jumbled and he tried to order them up to find something to say, but before he could do anything she acted. In a burst of quick thinking she rushed forward and caught him in a hug. Four arms were fastened securely around his neck. Before Stitch even had time to think, he felt a tiny pinprick pierce his back.

'Ow!' was his first reaction, and he reached back to rub the spot. The girl had withdrawn and stood next to him, experiment 323 – Hunkahunka – still clutched in her paws. She waited with her upper paws pressed together expectantly while the purple bird was still held captive in her lower appendages.

623 watched Stitch closely. It had all taken place in just a few seconds, and for quite a while now she had not taken a breath. She just stood for a few more agonising moments and looked for the first sign that it had worked.

Stitch lifted his head and glared. '_What did you do that for?!_' he asked angrily in alien. 623's face fell as she realised.

'I am sorry, 623,' a voice came out of the darkness. Jumba, Nani and Lilo were standing at the top of the path, coming out from behind the foliage. They had seen the whole thing. Jumba continued, 'I am afraid 323's power does not work on other experiments.'

623's ears drooped right down and her face fell into her paws. 'I am proud though,' Jumba said, in an effort to cheer her up. 'You have shown much creativity.'

623 turned and tried to run, but smacked into glass and fell over. Jumba had put an open experiment container over her. She released Hunkahunka from her grasp and put all her hands against the pane while the bird hovered over her head, flitting about in the container.

'You will not be getting away again, 623,' Jumba warned. He closed the container and all 6 went back into the house.

--------------------

623 opened her eyes drowsily the next morning, having slept on the bottom of the glass pod. In a rush she remembered everything that had happened last night and groaned in despair, then noticed that Lilo was tapping on the container. The little girl opened up the end and the brown experiment slowly walked out.

'Okay,' began Lilo, 'I'm not sure exactly what's been going on. But why don't we just forget about it and start over?'

'Oh no, no!' 623 moaned. 'I can't believe this has gone so wrong!'

Lilo was a little surprised at her sudden gain of speech but tried to continue. 'What do you mean?'

Oh, don't you see?' she replied. 'I was trying so hard to be good… but I broke our promise and went to get that bird. And it didn't even work… I can't ever face Stitch again!' Her face was suddenly seized with concern. 'Stitch! Where is he?'

'Just calm down. Stitch is out right now. You don't have to worry about him. Why don't you come with me, and we'll go see Jumba?'

'Naga… just leave me here…'

'Are you sure? Are you… hungry?' she asked in an inviting voice.

623 considered it. 'Do you have more pineapples?' she asked tentatively.

'Sure. In the kitchen.'

623 scampered off to look for food and Lilo went back to consult Jumba, who was looking up information in his bedroom.

She sighed as she entered. 'I don't think she wants to talk about it.'

'Am not surprised!' laughed Jumba. 'Ooh heh heh… was very embarrassing…'

'I don't understand!' cried Lilo. 'Stitch and me both thought that she was nearly good, but then she went and ran away! What's going on?'

Jumba put down his work and faced her. 'Experiment 623 ran away to be retrieving experiment 323, a feat of which I am very proud. I imagine that Doctor Hamsterviel will have been most protective of experiments he has.'

They both looked in the corner of the room, where 323 was perched in an old bird cage Nani had dug out of the attic.

'But… why did 623 use Hunkahunka on Stitch? And why didn't it work?'

'Do you not remember? 323's power of inducing love sickness does not work on other experiments. They are all immune, for preventing confusion.'

'Oh, and another thing, 623 can talk in English now! What happened? Stitch has been on Earth for years and he still doesn't know much English.'

'626 is made for thinking like supercomputer. Imagine his brain like crammed full of information. 623's mind is more… empty. She had more room for filling with Earth dialect, so she can be learning things in very short time, compared to him.'

Lilo turned to leave, satisfied for the moment, but came back with another question.

'Jumba, how come you don't make many girl experiments?'

'Ach, what is with all the explaining? You know, nearly all species in entire galaxy are divided into two genders. I make most experiments equivalent of "male" because it made them more suited to their task. Many experiments are made for destruction, like 626, and males tend to be more aggressive and easily provoked. Experiments which are exception, like 624, for example, is female because was only way to reach pitch high enough to produce behaviour modification waves of sound. Evil-making song depends entirely on the right melody.'

'Right…' Lilo said, not understanding much of it. 'So what about 623?'

'Ah yes, was tricky genius work. 623 must make full use of female hormones in order to enable wide mood swings to allow quick access to her biggest strength. Makes her angry in big hurry. But now I am thinking, since 623 has not blown anything up in a while… maybe little girl is right. She is turning good. Rescuing of 323 displays use of own mind and imagination. You must be getting close.'

Feeling hopeful, Lilo went to find the rogue experiment.

623 stayed with them for the next few days. Nothing was destroyed and nothing was burned, and she seemed to mostly be concentrating on Stitch. She now avoided him at all costs, ran if he came into the room, and never looked at him during mealtimes. Lilo was convinced that the experiment was now good enough, and mainly worked on thinking of and researching names, but she could find nothing suitable. She was also completely at a loss as to where the experiment should go, but decided to do that later. After using Jumba's computer to look up a few possible name sources she walked triumphantly into the living room where she hoped Stitch would be.

'Hey Stitch! I've got another one! What do you think of – "El Diablo"?' she finished in a dramatic whisper, but there was no reply. Looking around she saw that the room was deserted.

'Stitch!' she cried, wondering where her friend had gone. '623?' she tried, but neither one came.

--------------------

Somewhere near the beach, 623 sat facing the ocean and watched the small waves lap against the shore. The water still scared her, so she sat not on the sand but just outside the forest on a patch of grass, but the sight of the cool, clear water calmed her and helped her think.

The sun had already set and the night air cooled around her as she sat in silent thought. She was sure that even Lilo would not be able to think of a place where she could belong. Surely the little Earth girl couldn't understand the feeling of being an experiment; the cold, hard loneliness, the depressing sensation and recollection of being completely alien – not native to any world in the entire galaxy. Created she had been, so homeless she would remain.

But then again, there were other experiments. They understood too – they were her… what was the word? Ohana? Yes, they would know how she felt. They were like her.

She slumped down as she remembered Stitch. He had his own family… he had found a place. He could even disguise himself enough to pass for an Earth form. She looked distantly at her own four paws and two feet and twitched her antennae and back spines. Her home couldn't be here if she couldn't even try hard enough to fit in.

She stared out at the sea again. The Earth's sea… there probably wasn't anything like it in the entire universe. So many forces acted on it, and it had to obey them all. How funny, she thought, that Stitch's true place was here, by all this water.

A shadow of reason passed over her thoughts. What exactly would make her happy? Well, a place. Just the knowledge that somewhere in all the infinite galaxies a place existed where she would actually fit. But that couldn't be. Nowhere, on any world, could an illegal genetically designed alien mutation like her find peace.

A crackle of twigs alerted her to someone else's presence. There was no need to turn around; she already knew who it would be. She turned her head away as Stitch approached.

'_I thought I'd come and find you. You've been avoiding me,_' he said as he sat down on the grass too.

She said nothing, but visibly quivered a tiny bit.

'_What's wrong? We never had this much trouble with any other cousins._'

He could see that her face was scrunched up and she was biting her lip. He was about to ask again when she blurted out:

'I'm so soka, Stitch! I never meant for this to happen!'

She let out a sob. Stitch felt like he should comfort her, but had no idea how.

'I don't know what's happening. Every time I'm around you, something happens. I can't think properly. I went all that way to get Hunkahunka… because I just wanted you to like me.'

She peered at him sideways with big, black eyes. 'I don't know what kept coming over me, but suddenly I had already gone and I couldn't get out of it. I didn't want to trick you,' she said brokenly.

Stitch wrung his paws worriedly and she just bent down her head and closed her eyes. He extruded his extra limbs, spikes and antennae and proceeded to fidget with both pairs of hands. They sat in an awkward silence, neither wanting to say a word, while above the first stars of the night lit up.

'You… uh… never told me the rest of your story,' she whispered hopefully.

'_I think you can guess how it ends,_' he smiled. '_I saved Lilo. The Grand Councilwoman changed my sentence to allow me to spend my life exile here. Then we rebuilt the house and I began my happy life with my family._'

For a few moments her gold-ringed eyes gazed at him with gratitude, then she looked away.

'_I thought of a name for you,_' he suddenly said. '_That is, if you want it._'

'Really? What is it?' She asked expectantly. He leaned over and whispered into her ear. Immediately her face lit up and she laughed, her large ears straight upwards in happiness.

'I love it!' she exclaimed. 'It's absolutely perfect.' They both giggled and then sighed.

'Well, Stitch,' she smiled, 'I'm glad we're okay. Achi-baba?' she asked, extending a paw for him to shake.

'Naga,' he replied, sounding surprised. Her heart fluttered at his unexpected response.

'Buchibu!' He cried happily, jumping up in realisation. She was completely taken aback.

'Oh, Stitch… really?' All her hopes suddenly skyrocketed and she stood up next to him.

'Ih!' he yelled, rushing to give her a lick on the cheek. The sudden discovery of his emotions surprised both of them. She licked him too, right on his nose, and they embraced in an eight-armed hug. 623 knew then what would make her happy. She was happy being with Stitch. _He_ was her home, and that was all she needed. She seemed to overflow with joy and squeezed him ever tighter, and he squeezed back. Suddenly something bright interrupted them and they reluctantly pulled apart.

'What's… going on?' she asked, trying to shield herself from the light which filled her eyes. Then they looked at each other and realised – the light was coming from them!

On Stitch's head the tips of his antennae were glowing brilliantly. They gave off a bright, fierce blue light. On 623, the small bulbs on the end of her antennae gleamed too. They gave off an inspiring and heart-warming yellow light.

'Oooooooooh…' breathed Stitch. 'Eegalagoo…'

'Oongatay…' she cooed in agreement.

As if of one mind they tipped their heads sideways towards each other. Stitch wound his blue light tipped antennae around the nearest of hers and his light mingled with her golden one. The two colours together doubled the beauty of the awe-inspiring sight.

--------------------

'…And she wasn't there either, and I can't find them anywhere!' Lilo finished explaining. She was talking to Jumba, back in her old bedroom again. Jumba thought for a moment, but there was a knock on the bedroom door. Lilo opened it.

'Stitch! You're back! …What's wrong?'

Lilo opened the door wider and Stitch walked in, his extended antennae still blazing with light.

'Aaah! 626, how did this happen?!' Jumba wailed.

'What's the matter?' Lilo asked, concerned. 'What's wrong with Stitch?'

'Absolutely nothing! That is the problem! You see, I give almost all experiments antennae for two reasons. For 626 they just receive and transmit microwaves, but they have special, back-up function. If one of my experiments ever becomes utterly and completely good, they light up like Earth Christmas tree.'

'But… Stitch was already good.' Lilo protested.

'Yes, but this is absolute and permanent state of goodness! Once experiment has achieved this, they can never be turned bad ever again! Evil genius experiment is no longer evil.'

'Well… that's a good thing,' she said optimistically. 'How did this happen?'

'If I am remembering correctly, ultimate state of goodness is brought on only by corresponding wave of ultimately good emotions,' Jumba explained. 'But where could such good feelings have come from?'

The door creaked open a little more and 623 entered, going to stand at Stitch's side. Her own antennae still glowed too.

'Ah! I see,' Jumba grinned knowingly. '626's good emotions have overpowered his bad through the greatest power of all: love.'

'Love?!' Lilo gaped. 'Then… Stitch and 623… are…'

'Ih!' Stitch answered for them.

Lilo seemed to be having trouble taking it all in. 'So… will those lights stay on forever?'

'Er… no. This is first time I am actually seeing this feature working, but I am sure they will go out soon enough. Still, does not change fact that 626 and 623 can never be turned to evil. Not even with Hamsterviel's reverse personality polarity machine. In fact, it was the reverse of this feature which I used in 627 to make it so that he could never be turned to good.'

'Well,' smiled Lilo, 'looks like our good feelings about you were right.'

'Yes,' agreed Jumba. 'Is true, you are finally turned to good, 623.'

She grinned, showing her two large fangs. 'My name,' she smirked with happiness and pride, 'is Demon.'


	5. Return

There's a picture especially for this chapter. Once you've read it, check out my bio to find the links to the pictures. I'd appreciate it.

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Chapter Five: Return

Lilo entered the living room only to find that two experiments were already watching the TV. Stitch was lying on the sofa, giggling occasionally, but 623 – freshly named Demon – was on the floor right in front of the screen, laughing her head off. Then Lilo noticed that although her antennae and spikes were still visible, she only had two arms.

'Oh, Demon, you managed to hide your arms!' she exclaimed. The smirking experiment looked back at her.

'Yep. I got the hang of it after Stitch showed me how. But I can't do the other bits yet.'

Suddenly Lilo noticed something odd about the experiment's voice.

'Demon… do you have an English accent?!'

She looked up again, but her eyes showed little understanding. 'Hmm? I learned most of your Earth language from this television programme.'

For the first time Lilo noticed what was on the TV. They were showing QI reruns.

'Huh? I don't remember ever seeing this show.'

'Stitch did some rewiring,' she grinned, then jumped up on the sofa to give him a grateful hug. Stitch gave her a lick, and with a faint hum their antennae lit up again, two blue and two yellow.

'Well, Jumba says those lights mean you're good,' Lilo pointed out. 'And you've got your name now… so I think it's time we found you a home.'

Demon froze and Stitch pulled her closer to him. 'Oh yeah…' the female experiment agreed sadly. 'I need to put my abilities to good use here, right?'

'That's it,' Lilo smiled. 'We just have to find someone who can make use of your natural talent.'

'Naga!' Stitch growled. 'Demon belong with Stitch!'

Demon gave him an affectionate lick on the cheek. 'I know, Stitch… but you and Lilo belong together too. Your place is with her, finding all the other cousins and giving them homes. There has to be somewhere for me, too.'

The three of them went outside for a walk, not with any particular destination, but just to clear their heads and maybe get some ideas.

'So…' Lilo started as they wandered in the general direction of the beach, using only the roads with the fewest people on them. '623's powers are… well, there's the destruction part, but we'll forget about that. And the anger induced super strength… oh, and you can breathe fire, too!'

Just to give a demonstration she exhaled a jet of flame into the air. She started to change colour as she did so, and as her fur became redder the fire got hotter. Then, squeezing her eyes shut with extra effort, she was able to pour the crimson flames together in a heart shape. Then the flames died out and she looked back proudly at them, breathing heavily.

'Hmmm…' Lilo pondered. 'And you two can light up like light bulbs. Hey! You could be a street lamp!'

Demon just gave her a "what the hell?" look at the utterly absurd idea. While bouncing thoughts across at each other they managed to wander up to the coast. All three stopped talking and watched the waves break for a while. Demon gave a little shudder. There was so much water…

'Hey! Howzit, Lilo?' called a friendly voice.

'David! Hi!' Lilo greeted. She ran over to meet her friend, the surfer boy. 'We were trying to find a place for another experiment,' she explained, as he picked her up in one arm. In the other arm he was carrying a surfboard, the one with the red and blue stripes around the edge.

'Well, if you're stuck, I know a great way to help you think,' he said cheerfully.

'Yeah? What's that?'

'We go out surfing.'

Lilo grinned. David was always looking for an excuse. Five minutes later David was steering the board towards the waves with Lilo perched on the front. The two experiments stood together on the sand.

'Aaah!' Demon gasped. 'They're going on the water!'

'Surfing,' Stitch explained. '_Don't worry, it's a sport. They can float on the board and if they fall off, they can swim back. It's fun._'

'You've… done that?' she gulped nervously, pointing at the water.

'Ih!' he beamed, before striking a pose on the sand and pretending to be on a board. 'Cowabunga!'

Then they sat on the sand and watched David and Lilo weave in and out of the curling waves. The sun was starting to set by the time they were done, and they walked back up the beach. Lilo immediately plonked herself down on the sand by Stitch.

'Are you sure you two don't want to try?' she asked them.

'Err…' Demon paused. 'Isn't there something a little less exhilarating we could do?'

'Oh. Well, I know a fun game,' Lilo replied. 'It's called "bury Stitch in the sand!"'

The two girls leapt on him and tried to pin his arms down. He let them and pretended to be afraid.

'Oh, no!' he cried. 'Save me!'

Then they piled sand on top of him until only his head and feet were visible. Lilo found some nearby shells to decorate it with while Demon moulded the top to make a sandcastle. Lilo also came across a good leaf to pin to the top as a flag. Stitch just smiled underneath it all.

'Hey,' David spoke up. 'Why don't you meet me tomorrow, Lilo, and help me wax our boards again? It looks like they need it.'

'Already?' Lilo inquired. 'When was the last time we did it?'

'Don't you remember? That time when Stitch kept eating the wax, and you two couldn't work together. That was when I tried to teach you about Yin and Yang.'

'Oh yeah! Then I found the experiments and named them that after what you taught me.'

'Who?' asked Demon.

'Oh. 501 and 502,' Lilo clarified. 'They could work together in harmony and use their lava and water to make land.'

'In fact…' David wondered, 'it was this surfboard that reminded me how Yin and Yang worked, so that I could tell you. This is the symbol of Yin and Yang,' he said, pointing at the circular intertwining teardrop shapes on the surfboard.

'Hey!' cried Lilo suddenly. 'I just saw a crab!' She ran off to find it.

'Uh-oh,' David went and ran after her.

'It was a really big one, too!' she shouted as they both ran off around a corner.

There was silence for a while as the sun sank deeper into the horizon.

'Wow. This really is a beautiful planet,' Demon sighed.

Stitch grinned and looked at the yin-yang symbol on the board next to them. He reached out and laid a paw over the blue part.

'Meega.'

She blinked at him and put her hand on the crimson part. 'Meega.' Then her own fur was flushed with a deep crimson red, apparently her equivalent of a blush. She purred delightedly for a while.

The intoxicating silence was broken suddenly by a new voice. It was soft and sultry, and gloatingly said:

'Gucha.'

Stitch immediately froze. Demon looked over somewhat angrily, then Stitch got up and turned around.

'Angel?!'

His voice was one of pure surprise. A dominantly pink experiment walked towards them, her long antennae sweeping over her head and down her back. She held a proud pose and looked at the 623rd experiment disdainfully.

It was difficult to tell what Demon's initial feelings were. Nothing happened for a moment, then the brown experiment snorted. 'What's that?' she scorned. 'A pink naked rat?'

The newcomer's face changed and became an expression of pain and hardship.

'_I've been looking for you, darling! Ever since I got out I searched!_'she looked proudly at Demon's sincerely confused face and continued. '_Where have you been? I've missed you so much…_' In one swift movement she grabbed Stitch, pulled him to her and gave him a lick, 'Buchibu!'

She just watched Demon's reaction as the hit went home. Absolutely nothing; there was no movement. No twitching, no breathing, no blinking. Just standing.

Stitch still made no movement either, he was too confused and overwhelmed. He didn't resist Angel's advances, just looked pleadingly in Demon's direction. When he came to his senses he pulled himself up and asked the most important question on his mind.

'How did you get out?'

'_Thank your little friend here,_' she replied triumphantly. '_She came all the way and unlocked my cage._'

No sooner were the words out than Demon was gone. In a flash she seemed to disappear. Stitch instinctively took a step to follow her, but the pink experiment began to hum and he fell back, captivated.

Lilo and David returned, coming around the corner.

--------------------

It was raining. Hard. At the house Lilo was just finishing explaining the series of events to Jumba and Pleakley.

'So David went home, then I came home to tell you, and I have no idea where the other three are.'

'Hmmm…' Jumba was giving it a lot of thought. 'Reappearance of 624 is very… _interesting_. She says she was accidentally released by 623 when she went to get 323?'

Lilo worked through the numbers and nodded.

'Hmph… 626 and 624 will then probably be together. It is 623 I am very worried about. At the moment she will be very unstable. Could be in life endangering situation, especially in downpour like this.'

'Why?' Pleakley asked. 'Can't your little monsters fend for themselves?'

'Not like this, she can't. From your description, 623 may be severely psychologically damaged. Remember, to allow access to strength she feels more than anyone, could have much bigger consequences. I suggest you find her.'

'I wish somebody had told me about this earlier,' Pleakley complained. 'I've been getting ready to shoot my sequel to my masterpiece "Gushiest Love Story" which was unfortunately trampled, like Jumba said.'

A few minutes later Lilo was dressed up in her raincoat and a hat, and was somehow managing to get on top of the dome which was her room. Carefully she scrambled over the sloping sides which were made much more treacherous in the rain. Just as she had thought, Demon was up here.

'Uhh… hi!' Lilo waved an arm to try to get her attention. There was no response; the experiment's back was facing determinedly towards her.

'Don't you wanna come in?' she offered. 'You'll get cold and w-,'

'I'm already cold and wet!' she snapped back quickly. Lilo was just glad to get a response out of her. She took a few steps forward.

'Come on, now… let's not do anything drastic…' Demon jumped up suddenly.

'Naga! Meega-o-itume!'

The shock made Lilo fall over and start to slide. She was about to scream as she fell off the wet, curved roof, but Demon's paw flashed over the side and caught her arm. With a pull she brought her back up. Lilo was almost glad that it had forced her to do something.

'I'll… come in,' she submitted.

Once they had go inside, propped Demon up on a bed and covered her with a blanket, they were ready to talk.

'So…' said Lilo hopefully. 'Is there anything you want to say?'

'Tell me,' came the whispered reply, 'what happened.'

'Okay,' Lilo took a deep breath. 'Quite a while ago Stitch found 624 in an alley. Stitch really seemed to like her, named her 'Angel' and claimed she was a "buchibu". Unfortunately, she was still evil and turned Jumba evil and looked up all the data on his computer about the experiments we had caught and found homes for. Then she went around turning experiments evil again, and Stitch followed her. They were on this ship which was going to take them and a bunch of other experiments away, but I found the way to make people turned evil by the song to good again. We rushed up there and the ship crash landed. When Stitch came out, he claimed that Angel saved him and everyone else.'

'…And?'

'Oh yeah, and then Gantu turned up, shot one of those baggies at Stitch and took her away.'

Nobody said anything for a while.

'How do you feel?' Lilo inquired.

'I… don't feel anything. It's like I'm… hollow.'

Lilo wondered whether the experiment could be broken.

'But we know Stitch loved you!' Lilo tried to reassure her. 'Because of the… thing!' She pointed first above her head, then at Demon's antennae. 'That can't just have gone away.'

'I can't believe this is happening!' the experiment wailed, suddenly seeming willing to talk. 'As soon as I saw her I should have guessed something like this would happen! And why is it that I get tossed aside like some Flufftrog runt?! Why does _she_ get him and not me? Just because I was _activated_ later?! This… isn't… FAIR!'

'Okay… anger now…' Lilo observed. 'At least it's better than _nothing_.'

'It was me! I brought this on myself! If I hadn't stupidly gone to get the… and the fact that he named me after that… ARGH! I'm gonna wring her scrawny little…'

'Okay! Enough!' interrupted Lilo. 'Look, I think Stitch was left very confused by this. I don't think we should make any decisions until we get his side of it.'

'Yeah,' she agreed, taking a cleansing breath. 'I'll… go to bed.'

'Lilo!' Stitch's voice called from downstairs. The two girls looked at each other and then raced towards the front door.

Stitch had just come in from the rain and shook himself to disperse some of the water. Angel was with him and took his hand as Lilo and Demon came in. On seeing them, Demon paused and briefly clutched her chest, but shook it off. Angel had a hand on her hip and was smirking.

There was a long, awkward silence.

It was Lilo who broke it. 'Now, Stitch, I think we're all a bit confused by what's been going on. What do you have to say?'

'Ah… oh… um…' he looked at his feet but lifted his gaze up to Demon. She couldn't help but feel completely obliterated inside.

Angel decided to take this opportunity to address Demon. 'Meega na la qweesta,' she swore carelessly at her.

Demon streaked across the room in a flash of rage. The two female experiments faced each other and showed their teeth. Only Demon snarled and growled. Just as she was about to spring to attack her, Stitch put his arm over her shoulder from behind. They both interpreted this in different ways. Angel was convinced that he was protecting her by keeping the uncouth experiment away. Demon, however, felt his other paw close around hers and knew that he didn't want them to fight, and he didn't want her to be hurt. She felt him squeeze her hand just a little bit and remembered how much she really loved him. From his hand up her arm tingling emotions started to spread, flooding across her body. When they reached her head, the antennae glowed as brightly as they had before.

Angel didn't seem to understand the meaning of this, but it seemed to be a signal for her old programming to kick in. The world stopped and watched as she started to sing.

'Acuta… chimeto…

Eegata nomuta…

Naga tonala,

Itume… tiduka…'

Stitch and Lilo turned to Demon, the only one who might be affected, but…

As soon as they turned back, the door was open and Angel was gone.


	6. Confrontation

Hi, readers. Thanks for choosing to continue reading. Remember to check my profile for Fanfic Pictures, and please review with your opinion.

****

Chapter Six: Confrontation

Strangely enough, life just about returned to what was passing for normal. Stitch continued to live as usual, accompanying Lilo most of the time, and thankfully no more experiments had been activated for them to retrieve, but he was constantly distracted and lost in his thoughts. Angel was not seen or spoken of, and everyone knew it would be useless to go and look, because she'd be impossible to find, and no problems were ready to be resolved.

Demon's condition had gone from bad to worse. Ever since Angel's appearance she had been very unstable, but now she, like Stitch, was always distracted. Apart from all of the confusion in her mind, the reason for this was Angel's singing.

Ever since that day, everything had changed. Because of the effect Stitch had on her, and her antennae proved, there was no way to convert her back to evil. It was Stitch who kept her sane. Having fallen in love with Stitch, and having him love her back, had produced feelings of such magnitude that as long as he was still there, she could never return to evil, and the same for him. But should he ever snap out of his confused and contemplative state, and choose anyone else over her, the feeling would be crushed and she would again be open to temptation.

At present nothing so drastic had happened. When Angel sang her song it had been unable to affect her and turn her evil, but it was affecting her in other ways. The poor experiment was being plagued, night and day, by the presence of the song in her mind. She couldn't get it out of her head – it just seemed to go round and round inside her, on a never-ending loop. Every so often Lilo would hear her humming the tune absent-mindedly, or murmuring a few words in her sleep, and she became all the more worried.

Stitch walked into the living room, where Demon was stretched out on a cushion on the floor. She sat up as he entered, but said nothing, There was silence.

'Have you… thought of anything yet?'

Stitch shook his head. He was still undecided.

'So?' she continued. 'You'll probably never pick just one of us,' she sighed, 'and you'll end up with us both.'

'Naga,' Stitch replied hastily. He put a paw on his chest. 'Not enough… room.'

'Come on, guys!' said Lilo, entering the room. 'We're all gonna go up to the beach to see David. You should come.'

The two experiments exchanged a glance before following Lilo out of the door.

All four aliens in the family were in their Earth disguises once they were out on the street: 'Uncle' Jumba and 'Aunt' Pleakley, who had typical clothes and wigs, and Stitch and Demon, who were attempting to hide their telltale appendages and masquerade as dogs. On the way, Demon walked up on all fours to talk to Lilo.

'Explain again – why does Pleakley dress like Earth female?'

Lilo half-laughed, half-sighed. 'You _don't_ want to go into that.'

'Where is David's one true place?' the experiment questioned.

'His… place?' Lilo wondered. 'Well, he works at the Luau. Nani used to work there too, but she quit because the manager was a vampire, and… y'know, that's a pretty long story…'

When they got to the beach, David was there waiting for them.

'Aloha, Nani!' he smiled. 'And Lilo, of course. And…the rest. Who's up for surfing?'

'Ooh, me!' said Nani. 'I want to make the most of my time off. What about you, Lilo? …Lilo?'

The girl looked around for a few seconds, but couldn't see her sister anywhere. 'David, where'd Lilo go?'

'I don't know,' he replied, 'but the dogs aren't here either.'

'Nani! David!' Lilo cried, coming into view. She was running back from another part of the beach. 'You've got to come quickly!'

Nani, David, Pleakley and Jumba followed the girl as she ran back.

'Uh-oh,' Jumba warned. 'This is not looking good.'

Down on the beach Stitch was standing struck with surprise, while Demon and Angel were squaring off on the sand.

The rest of the Ohana raced over to see what was happening. Angel was standing with an annoyed look on her face, while Demon crouched in a pouncing position, snarling fiercely. All her fur was bristling up and flushing with crimson.

'What is going on here?' Nani demanded. She pointed to Angel, 'Didn't that one live in our house a while back?'

'That's _also_ a long story…' Lilo replied.

Angel, looking Demon up and down, grinned slightly. She knew how to get this one to back off.

'Acuta… chimeto…'

After a few moments everyone realised what she was doing. Pleakley reacted quickly and stuffed his fingers into Jumba's ears so he wouldn't hear.

'Eegata nomuta…'

Stitch looked from one girl to the other with anxiety. Despite her hindered thinking power, Demon's face was determinedly set. Those beautiful words were filling her ears… reminding every cell in her body of the pure joy which comes from doing what you're set out to do. Tempting her with promises of destruction and glory like nothing else. Pleading and pulling and twisting her to be what she was always _meant_ to be. "_Listen, and come back… be what you are told to be…_" But she looked at Stitch, and the cries of the song fell on deaf ears. She knew what she had to do.

When the next line of the song started, there wasn't just one voice. There were two. Angel began singing again, and Demon joined in…

'Naga tonala…' _"There's no other way"_

Angel's tune was now laced with Demon's beautiful harmony, their voices dancing and intertwining, the song itself becoming a thing of awe.

'Itume… tiduka…'

As it ended Demon put a twist on the melody, cutting it off with a flourish. Angel stared at her menacingly. Demon just sighed, although inside she was filled with excitement and adrenaline, but then she appeared to light up and glow.

'I'm _back!_' she snarled.

'That is absolutely _amazing_!' exclaimed Jumba.

'Why? What happened?' asked Pleakley, confused.

'623 has discovered a way to stop 624's powers from working! What she did negates the effect of the neuro-linguistic behavioural modification, and reverses it! It is the perfect counter-action. 623 is now free from the sireny song effects. I am… so proud.'

There wasn't much time to be proud of Demon, though. Without the song inhibiting her thoughts she was truly herself again. Wasting no time, she brewed flames in her mouth and spat the fire at her nemesis. Angel had to get over her sheer surprise and attempted to dodge them. The audience was now very concerned – a real fight was breaking out.

Demon was lunging and pouncing at the other experiment, and she wasn't afraid to use her claws. Angel wasn't at all designed to handle violence, and had to put all her effort into blocking and escaping.

Demon started to relax a bit and let herself settle into the rhythm of the fight. In a straight battle it was obvious she would win – Angel had no powers of her own to use, so she attempted to taunt her just as Angel had done.

Angel ducked a blow and tried to run, but Demon blew a ball of fire into her paw and hurled it at her. The fireball hit close to Angel's feet and knocked her off balance with fear and surprise. Once she was down, Demon dived over and tried to grab onto her. Angel tried to get up, but Demon managed to hold onto one of her long antennae and jerked it backward to stop her from getting to her feet.

'Not very practical, are they?' Demon hissed into her ear.

A sharp pain in her head made Demon howl and let go. When she looked up, Angel was standing a short way away, holding a rock which she had found on the sand and used to slam Demon on the head.

Demon stood up but didn't move any further.

'That's _it_. We're ending this _now_.'

The air about her turned to haze, making her flicker and sway. Demon was heating up way more than she ever had done before. A terrible flame seemed to be consuming her; she was red-hot with hateful fire. Her eyes held flaming red inside their dark blackness, as if the power held in her core was so strong it could be seen through them. Inside, she was remembering everything Angel had done to her. Everything she'd done with Stitch that made her insanely jealous. Everything that had been taken away because of her. All that anger boiled up inside until she felt like she was about to burst.

'Oh no!' said Jumba.

'What is it!' squealed Pleakley. 'What's happening? What's going on!'

'Is what I always feared…' Jumba explained, 'I never limited the amount of firepower generated by 623. If she could ever care about something so much that it produced the highest level of anger, the power her body makes from it might be too much for her to take. It could destroy her!'

'Naga!' Stitch cried in an effort to make her stop, but she paid him no heed. Everything around her looked like it was melting with the incredible heat.

'Then, that's…' Lilo wondered, 'that's how much she cares for Stitch?'

'Apparently,' Jumba replied.

'Well,' Pleakley added, being strangely accurate, 'they say "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned".'

While Demon had been frozen still, Angel had stolen a child's floating ring from somewhere and had constructed something with it and 2 sticks. With strong sticks planted in the ground, she had stretched the rubber ring over them to create a catapult. Just about everyone there could tell what she was going to do with it.

'Demon! Don't do it!' yelled Lilo, but it was too late. Carrying with her the enormous amount of energy, and moving like a living fireball, she ran headlong in Angel's direction. All of her aggression and hate towards her had been channelled into pure power, coursing through her veins. To her, it was as if the only things in existence were the three experiments on the beach. Angel just stood smugly, mocking her with a smirk. This only fuelled her more, and Demon ran even faster.

Stitch helplessly reached out his hand to her.

Blinded by her rage, Demon ran straight into the makeshift catapult. She stretched out the rubber and carried on regardless, her hands outstretched. Her fingertips stopped just centimetres from Angel, who gave her a look of fake pity before the laws of physics took their course. The rubber suddenly pinged back, pulling Demon with it. She was thrown away with the same huge force she had applied to the float, just as she had reversed the effect of Angel's power. The tremendous force which she had carried now threw her up, into the sky, then down, and she crashed into the waves of the sea.

There was a stunned silence from those watching on the beach.

'No!' cried Lilo. 'She'll drown!'

Stitch turned to find Angel standing near him, looking very proud. She was clearly waiting for him to do something. He turned back and looked at the water, and realised. This was it.

This was his decision.


	7. Saviour

****

Chapter 7: Saviour

Deep down below the waves, Demon was sinking rapidly, the dark, dank blueness of the sea swallowing her up. She had tried flapping her limbs to propel herself upwards, but to no avail. She just floated downwards, feeling the pressure of the water building up above her.

She hadn't won the fight for Stitch. That one thought seemed to drag her down and crush her with more power than anything Earth's seas could do. She wasn't too bothered that she was dying, that was already certain. At least, she thought, Stitch would be able to carry on without her. And be with Angel. At that she curled herself up into a ball, consumed by bitter despair, and the tears she cried were just lost into the endless water.

-

Stitch turned on Angel. She just stood there, cocky, triumphant, waiting for him to make the first move. He shot her a look of utmost hate. His eyes were determinedly set; there was no decision to be made here. Then he turned and leapt in one bound into the crashing waves.

-

Demon had been falling, sinking, forever and ever. That's what it felt like to her. She couldn't tell how long she had been surrounded by the water. Perhaps there was nothing else one could be surrounded by.

How much more time would have to be spent like this? She wished her end would come quicker. She had been spending the last few agonising seconds saying goodbye to her thoughts. Thoughts that wouldn't have existed without Stitch. What was she without him? She would still be a rampaging fireball of destruction, laying waste to whatever got in her way. It was Stitch who changed all that. He made her what she was, made her able to have these feelings, taught her all the things she treasured.

She was nothing without him.

She must have been sinking for all eternity. She'd long forgotten how to taste, smell or feel. She could no longer recall the touch of a breeze. She couldn't even remember how to breathe. It felt like she'd never breathed at all.

By now all reason had left her mind. It was like she was trapped in a fluffy, make-believe land that you couldn't leave, and got nowhere no matter what you did. But there was one thing she could still remember.

Floating slowly downwards, she could look up at the sunlight streaming through the water. Like a lifeline of light, unable to help her. The brightness had dimmed as she sank, but it still held stubbornly on, reaching all the way down to her. Then, slowly, she watched the bright circle above get darker. This must be it, then. All light was fading.

But soon she realised that it wasn't her vision fading, something was just obscuring the light from above. Something swooping down, becoming clearer as it got closer.

'_An angel_,' her mind said. '_An angel's come for me_.'

And she was right.

The shape got closer until she could see Stitch's form almost clearly against the bright sunlight beyond.

She could barely believe what she was seeing, but reached out a hand all the same. A simple plea made somewhat unconsciously.

Stitch was swimming downwards with all his might, paddling furiously with four limbs to descend faster than she was. At last the two were close enough, and he reached one of his paws out.

Their hands connected in the nothingness, and everything seemed to freeze.

'_Why?_' she thought. They both understood. They didn't need words. '_You came back for me_.'

'_Nobody gets left behind_,' he answered. And then time started again.

They each pulled on the arm that connected them, drawing them closer together. Once they were close enough they embraced, hugging each other tighter. Down there, it was the only thing that was real.

'_This is it then_,' Demon thought. '_It's the end…_'

'_If you go_,' Stitch was thinking to her, '_I'll follow. We go together_.'

They laid their heads against each other, and for the first time since it all started, they seemed content. Then Demon seemed to become limp. She was going to go first. Stitch hugged her tighter, then squeezed as hard as he could, begging her with all his heart not to go.

Then he felt something. A change. They were moving around in the water. Before there had been no sense of up or down, but now Demon was unmistakably over him. She was rising upwards. In the shock of realising it Stitch has somewhat released her, and now she hovered over him. He was just clinging to her paw desperately. She was floating over him. _Floating_. She above and him below, hanging on to her hand, she was the only thing stopping them from sinking, so they just hung in mid-nothingness. And Stitch remembered her power. Now, she was peaceful, calm, and unconscious. She had no rage, no anger – no strength. Without strength her body did not have the increased molecular density – she would float in water. He, on the other hand, could do nothing to change the fact his strength was ever present, he would always sink.

He wasn't really able to choose any more. He knew what he was going to do. He gripped her hand tighter for what he thought would be the last time. The two of them could continue to hang there indefinitely. So he was going to let go of her hand, she would rise to the surface, perhaps survive, and he would……

He felt the touch of her hand against his for one last time, and prepared to release her.

-

Up on the beach, the spectators watched and waited with baited breath. Lilo had taken Nani's hand, partly from anxiety, and partly because she would have run into the water herself without Nani to stop her.

After a few more moments, David's head broke the surface of the water. He scrambled up onto the beach, pulling the two experiments' limp forms after him. As he laid them on the sand, Lilo ran to Stitch to see if he was still okay. His eyes were closed, so she grabbed his shoulders to shake him awake. She wasn't afraid of making things worse, he just had to wake up – and usually experiments can endure quite a lot.

'Stitch? Are you okay?'

He suddenly sprang into life, and automatically used all his strength to scramble over to Demon's side. He threw himself onto her and pulled her up, desperately trying to get her to wake up. He didn't consider the fact that she might not be able to.

'Demon! DEMON!'

With a jerk her eyes opened, and she choked for air while trying to dislodge some water from her lungs. He allowed her a few seconds to gulp down air, then grasped her again. She hugged him gratefully back.

'You saved me!' she said, her voice sounding a little whispery and rasping.

'Naga,' he replied, 'You saved me! Stitch would have sunk without Demon.'

'Okay then,' she sounded very relieved. 'We saved each other.'

'David saved you too,' Lilo interjected. The party looked at him.

'Oh no, it was nothing!' he insisted. 'Just a dive. Although, if you two had gone any deeper, I probably wouldn't have been able to get you.'

Then, in the rush of understanding one has just after waking up, the experiments remembered what had happened before.

'Angel?' Stitch asked quickly, looking around.

'She's gone,' Lilo replied. 'She got all upset and stormed off.'

'Excusing me,' Jumba intervened, 'but I have reason to believe 624 is presenting us with serious problem. You human peoples did not understand what she was saying before she left, but I did.

'She seemed to be angry not at loss of 626, but other reason. Her actual words were something about "most powerful experiment alive". And she was very jealous. During this yelling, Mr. One Eyed Noodle,' he indicated Pleakley, 'happened to mention the existence of 627 to her. And that his pod was located on my ship. And 624 ran off.

'I did have doubts about 624. You see, when I programmed all the experiments I neglected tiny detail – the experiments have a built in overwhelming instinct to do whatever purpose it is I set for them. But with almost all experiments I did not give them a _desire_ to do it. That is why most experiments can be turned to good relatively quickly once they are shown the error of their ways, and they can think for themselves. But when I built 625, the importance of the behavioural desire programming became apparent. He has all abilities of 626, but does not want to use them. After the failure of 625, I installed special feature in 626, and later, 627, so they actually _want_ to use all their powers. They gain pleasure from doing it.

'This may have affected 624, in a way. She does not have desire programming. And experiments without it have their own personality which can conflict with their programming. For example, a destructive experiment could essentially be a pacifist, because they dislike fighting. And that conflict of destructive instinct and calm personality can have repercussions on the individual concerned. I think that 624 is actually power mad.'

There were three cries of 'What?' and two of 'Gaba?'.

'624 likes mayhem and chaos,' Jumba explained. 'She enjoys having people follow and obey her – that's to be expected, it's part of her programming. But it's gone too far – her actual personality craves power. And yet, she physically has none, unlike her cousins. This has created a complex in 624, a need for power, and she must attain it from others. I believe this is what led to her interest in 626.

'But what now? She has lost 626 for good; he was choosing 623. So she was distraught until Pleakley mentioned 627, being the noodle brain he is. She's after 627's pod, and she knows where it is, because he's the most powerful.'

'Meega chubi-chiba 627!' Stitch cried defensively.

'Let us hope it does not come to that,' said Jumba.

'So… what do we do now?' asked Lilo. 'Do we go home and get 627's pod, if that's what she's after?'

'No… 624 will have been there and gone by now. She knows where I would keep it, or has turned my ship upside-down looking for it. It'll be gone. But this is where hope comes in – I do not believe 624 knows how to activate the pods correctly. We have some time – just a little – to get the pod away from her before she figures out how to activate it, or gets it wet by accident.'

'All right,' Lilo said optimistically, coming into her role as the organiser of the team. 'We've got a job to do, and not a lot of time to do it in. Pleakley, Jumba, you should go home and check your chip, just in case. Nani and David, you guys go back home or something. Demon, Stitch…'

The two of them looked up at her inquiringly.

'You're with me. We're gonna figure 624 out, and I think we're going to have to enlist the help of some old friends of ours.'

-

Thank you so much for reading. Thank you also to my reviewers, and I hope you, too, will consider it. To answer some of them:

Spirits Shadow, when I say Demon's accent is English, it means she sounds like she comes from England, the country. But I also strongly agree with you. I've seen Angel fans flip-flop all over the place, some say that she isn't actually evil, because in her episode she was acting only on her programming. But then, she is only 'un-evilled', in some people's opinion, at the very end, leaving no time at all to show any character. How can she be out of character when we haven't been shown any at all?

I'm not trying to start a war here. That's just my view.


	8. Devil In Disguise

****

Chapter 8: Devil In Disguise

Just outside the Kokaua Town prison, Lilo, Stitch and Demon stopped to rest. Having run all the way there from the beach, the human girl and two almost-drowned experiments were not currently in top form.

Once Lilo caught her breath, she led the other two around to the entrance.

'You two stay here,' she addressed the experiments. 'I don't think they'll let 'dogs' in.'

She ran in, leaving the two experiments, holding each other's hand, standing outside.

Demon promptly sat down on the floor with a sigh. Everything still seemed so strange, like a long dream… seeing everything while running through Hawaii in a flash was an overload for someone who had been so sure that they weren't going to see anything ever again. Now it seemed more like a nightmare she wished would end.

Stitch sat down beside her. 'You okay?'

'Yeah, fine… I suppose,' she signed again. Stitch leaned over to put his arm over her, then wrapped her into a warm, furry hug.

'What was that for?' she asked, her tone lighter.

'Stitch just happy…' he said with the cutest smile, 'that you still here.'

'Me too,' she laughed, letting herself fall onto him and muzzled his chest with her head. For a few moments, even within the hectic situation they were still enveloped in, they both felt relaxed and more carefree, for the first time since everything had gone wrong when Angel had reappeared.

'Come on, guys!' Lilo said to them as she ran out of the prison. As Stitch and Demon got up they saw she was being closely followed out by another two experiments. All five of them managed to come together to run as a group.

'Lilo, what's going on?' Demon called. 'Who are they? Cousins?'

'Yup! Pleased to meetcha,' replied one, a short, primarily green experiment. 'My name's Bonnie, and this here,' she gestured to her partner, a larger, brown experiment whose most noticeable feature was his mechanical arm, 'is Clyde. Lilo asked us for help on your little mission.'

'Bonnie and Clyde are experiments made for stealing,' Lilo said, while trying to run at the same time, 'we found 'em and they're good now, but they're stuck in prison. I figured they'd be able to help us, seeing as how they're "great criminal minds".'

'If they're in prison,' Demon continued, now running on all four paws as Stitch was, 'don't they have to stay in there?'

'Naw, they lets us out all the time,' Clyde spoke for the first time, 'on account of Jumba gave them this DNA tracker, so the cops always know where we are.'

'Umm… where are we going?' asked Stitch, not being very fond of careening towards an unknown location.

'Well, I asked Bonnie about it one the way out,' Lilo was now gasping for breath, 'and if Angel stole 627's pod, but doesn't know what to do, apparently she'll stay in a familiar location. It's something psychee... psychoiee...'

'Psychological,' Bonnie completed in an exasperated way. 'And it turns out that this 624 spent most time while on Earth at your very own pad.'

'You mean…' said Demon hesitantly, 'we're going…'

'Home!' yapped Stitch happily.

As they took the left turning to Lilo's house, the group split up. Bonnie and Clyde headed towards Jumba's parked spaceship to find the others and get their help. Lilo, Demon and Stitch headed straight for home. Stitch and Lilo found running up the path towards their house comforting – they had done it so many times before, it was some welcome recognition after the strange events of the past few days. Demon saw the blue and red house and felt comforted for a different reason – it was the only home she'd ever known. As they reached the blue stairs Lilo ran up as she had always done – Stitch and Demon climbed the woodwork instead as it was faster.

Throwing the door open, the three dashed inside. The house was completely askew – nothing seemed in its proper place. But none of them stopped to check, they ran from room to room as quickly as they could, scanning the area for signs of their adversary. But as they reached the kitchen doorway, they all stopped.

There was Angel, standing next to the dryer. The kitchen itself had been turned upside-down, apparently in her search for an instrument that would open the pod she held clutched in her hand.

As she saw the three, standing in the doorway, she froze. Lilo was reminded of the first time she had seen the pink experiment, when they had collided in an alleyway, and recalled Angel's look of surprise and spite, similar to the way she looked now.

Almost too late, they all realised Angel had released 627's pod in shock. They saw it slip through her fingers and head for the floor, which was covered in puddles of mess, more than likely containing some form of water.

Stitch wasn't one to forget himself easily. He leaped into the air, seizing the pod as it fell, and then rolled to a stop. Before Angel could react, Demon jumped onto her, and pushed her to the ground so she was unable to move.

At that moment, the front door could be heard opening as Jumba, Pleakley, Nani, David, Bonnie and Clyde rushed in. Jumba reached the kitchen first, clasping something under his arm.

'Little girl! 626! 623!' he gasped, apparently out of breath from the run. 'Was 627 activated?'

The three of them speechlessly shook their heads.

Jumba sighed with relief. 'I have brought insta-dehydrator for to make 624 back into pod.'

'Naga!' Angel squeaked, and reached out her paw for Stitch. He looked at her; she really was pretty. But for some reason, though her looks had captivated him before, Stitch could see straight through them. With a look of distaste, he tossed the blue pod in his hand to Lilo, and watched as Angel's gaze and pleas followed the orb through the air. It was still him she wanted. Lilo grabbed the pod and pocketed it with a scowl, while Angel kept struggling to get to the pod. Demon's four arms were holding her, pinned down.

Jumba set the insta-dehydrator of the floor, and Lilo picked up Angel. Even the Earth girl was able to hold down the experiment's pitiful attempts to free herself. With a push, Lilo placed 624 inside the insta-dehydrator's bubble.

Angel looked up through the glass to see Stitch standing over her. Even curled into a ball, she begged Stitch with everything she could, through one look, to save her.

Stitch looked right back at her. The whole room watched the two of them, communicating but still. Stitch raised his hand to the control panel of the machine, hovering over a button.

He looked Angel right in the eyes. 'Bye bye, buchibu.'

With a crackle and a flash, Angel heard his sarcastic comment too late, and a second later she disappeared. With a rattle, a small coloured pod rolled out from the machine, bearing the numbers 6-2-4. Lilo picked it up, and held it together with 627's blue one.

'Allow me,' Jumba strode over to the little girl, 'as soon as I repair the damage 624 did to my ship with that plasma blaster, both of these go right away under the safest secure doors Jumba can imagine.'

Demon ran straight up to Stitch and hugged him. 'It's finally over…' she breathed into his fur.

'Way to go, you two!' Bonnie announced, walking into the room. ''Specially you, Red. High-five!'

Demon grinned and high-fived her big sister.

A few minutes later, Bonnie and Clyde had left to go back "home", and everyone else was pitching in to clean up the house. Stitch was trying to reorganise heavy things that had been knocked over, Pleakley was dusting and vacuuming, and Nani was trying to clean up everything Pleakley "dusted". Lilo found her home-made doll Scrump all alone under the sofa, so she was trying to locate all her missing toys.

'Hey, Lilo…' Demon called to get her attention. Lilo wandered over as Stitch lifted a toppled bookcase with a single hand, and Demon pulled out everything from underneath it. As Stitch replaced the bookcase, Lilo recognised some of her belongings.

'What's this?' Demon asked, pulling out a green box. Lilo pulled it towards her, checking it over.

'That's my record player!' Lilo was anxious to see if it had taken any damage. 'I hope it didn't get broken…'

After looking for cracks, Lilo grabbed a nearby record on the floor and located the speaker, ready to check if the machine still played. She set the disc and powered up the machine, and waited worriedly to see if music started.

"You look like an Angel…

(Look like an Angel…)

Walk like an Angel…

(Walk like an Angel…)

Talk like an Angel,

But I got wise…

You're the Devil in disguise,

Oh yes you are…

Devil in disguise…

You fooled me with your kisses,

You cheated and you schemed,

Heaven knows how you lied to me-…"

Lilo quickly removed the record, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

'Looks like it works fine…'

Stitch and Demon were sitting very uncomfortably, staring at the floor. Nobody spoke.

'Sorry…' there was some confusion as to who had spoken, then the two experiments realised they had both said it together. Then they smiled at each other and the awkwardness was forgotten.

Seeing that the moment had passed, Lilo was relieved. 'You know, I think that song suits you two.'

The experiments looked up at her quizzically.

'I mean, Demon and… 624…' Lilo tried to explain. 'She wasn't an Angel, but her looks fooled most of us. And she was pure evil all along…' she looked at Demon brightly, 'but you're like a Devil in disguise too! Anyone who looks at you would think that you'd be evil, just based on your appearance… but inside, you're as sweet as an angel could be.'

Demon smiled, the brightest, most sincere smile she possibly could, made ironic since she couldn't hide her large fangs.

'You too, Stitch,' said Lilo, bringing both experiments into a group hug. 'You're the nicest angels anyone could have wished for.'

--------------------

Author's Note: Wow, I can't believe this story is nearing completion. This is the penultimate chapter. So thank you, as always, to the people who reviewed me, and I very much hope you'll consider it, too.

Now that you've read this chapter, you'll find a piece of artwork dedicated to it on my user page. Why not head over there to check it out?


	9. Burning Love

****

Chapter 9: Burning Love

Lilo sat on the floor in the living room, Scrump in one hand, the remote in the other, watching a video tape of Elvis on the television. She was so immersed in watching that she almost missed Nani as she crossed the hall behind and opened the front door.

'Hey…' said Lilo, turning around after realising Nani was there, 'why do you look pretty?'

She was referring to Nani's extra jewellery and the dress that she only wore for special occasions. Stitch rounded a corner and sat at Nani's feet as she replied, 'We're going on a date.'

There was a pause, in which Lilo looked from Nani to Stitch and back again in confusion. 'You're… going on a date?'

'With David at the luau,' she completed. 'Your experiments wanted to come along too, and I said they could as long as they don't cause a scene or draw attention to the fact that they sit at the table.'

Stitch finished picking something out of his ear and called out, 'Buchibu? Chimeto!'

'Coming!' yelled a voice, and Demon scampered into the room. With a little effort, she pulled her extra limbs and alien appendages, and sat on the floor, wagging her tail slightly.

'Ooh, can I come?' said Lilo enthusiastically, standing up and clasping her hands together. 'Pleeeeeeeeeeease?'

Nani rolled her eyes. 'Oh, all right… since you can help keep our "dogs" in check… but you have to share a table with them and try to keep them out of our hair.'

'No problem!' grinned Lilo, 'I guarantee your hair will stay experiment-free! Come on, guys,' she motioned to the "dogs" and they followed her out of the door.

They walked briskly along the streets on the way there, the evening air was a little cold, but comforting all the same. Along the town streets, people were closing their shops and preparing to go home, and a few who knew Nani waved as they walked past. They didn't care if the two animals travelling with them looked like mutant koalas, and when Nani and Lilo waved back, Demon thought that she'd never felt more accepted, and there was no other place in the universe she _could_. This town, on a small island on a virtually unknown planet, was a true home. She never wanted to leave.

When they reached the luau at last, the humans went in quite happily, but Demon stopped. She looked at the place – wooden beams and flaming torches all around, and many people… wouldn't it be fun to see them all running for cover, screaming…?

Demon was scared. The kind of atmosphere this place held was very close to her original programming. In her mind the wood she could see all around was meant to be destroyed, one way or another – although she didn't know it, this was the same way Stitch had felt on his visit to Honolulu.

'Gaba isa?' Stitch placed a paw on her shoulder. '_It's reminding you of your programming_?'

'Naga choota,' she said irritably, but regretted snapping at him. 'Soka.'

''S okay,' said Stitch brightly. He knew she was designed for being wild and angry… he understood her so well. She smiled warmly for his quick forgiveness.

Stitch could see that she was still afraid… with all the temptation around, she was scared of _herself_… how could he help her? When he looked at her now, he could sense a difference. Something about her had changed since the encounter with Angel, something in her self-confidence. A spark that had once glowed in her eyes had died. It was as if a part of her had been extinguished after her heartbreak, and a space was left for something less naïve, less reckless, and more mature and understanding. She had learned some of life's largest lessons in a short amount of time. But with the loss of her innocence, came control. And Stitch knew she was ready to control herself and her powers, like he did, and be ready to face anything.

'So,' Stitch began, motioning that he was about to go after Nani and Lilo, 'will Demon follow Stitch?'

Demon smiled again, and concern was lifted from her face. 'Stitch, I'd go with you to hell and back.'

They walked through the luau side by side, joining Lilo at her table.

'So guys, what do you feel like having?' Lilo asked while browsing a menu.

'Erm…' the two experiments exchanged a glance, 'cake.'

Lilo laughed. 'I should have known…'

Nani had joined David at another table not far away and they seemed to be getting along well. They chatted over their food, and the whole scene looked very romantic in the firelight of the tiki torches.

At Lilo's table, away from the eyes of the adults, all three of them had ordered nothing but cakes and they were wolfing them down happily.

From across the luau, a small orange creature who was obviously an experiment to anyone who knew what one was, waved to Lilo and Stitch.

'Cousin?' questioned Demon, who had finished eating and had taken to looking around.

'Yeah,' Lilo answered through her cake, 'that's Splodyhead. They keep him around here to use his plasma abilities to light the torches.' Demon was heartened to know that another cousin had found their place and had been accepted.

Past a few tables where other couples and families were happily eating and talking, a new band began to play. They had replaced the traditional Hawaiian band that had been quietly playing, and now struck up a beautiful symphony on foreign classical instruments to add some variety to the evening.

'Wow,' said Lilo, who had finally cleared her plate and turned in her seat to enjoy the music. 'Hey Demon, that's really…' she looked for the experiment, but she had gone.

'Lilo!' Stitch cried frantically. 'Aba lucha!' He pointed over to the band, where, to their surprise, Demon seemed to be considering the musicians while standing right in front of them.

Lilo motioned for Stitch to copy her and she dropped to the floor, then began making her way around to the band, weaving between tables and trying to stay out of sight. Stitch did the same.

When they finally got to the row just in front of the band, they stopped and hid at the side of a nearby table. Demon was, once again, nowhere to be seen. Then she reappeared from behind a disorganised pile of the musician's instrument cases, carrying what looked like a violin.

Lilo tried to surreptitiously grab the experiment's attention and get her to stop, but Demon took no notice.

After regarding the band one final time, Demon leapt into their midst, lifted the fiddle to her chin, placed the bow on it, and joined in.

Lilo's fear melted away when she realised the experiment was actually _good_. She played her violin flawlessly, imitating yet ornamenting the melody being performed. She continued to give a scintillating and heated rendition, executing complicated harmonies and breath-taking descants. Her claws curved perfectly to reach each string without clashing with another.

Suddenly the band stopped playing – they had all noticed the appearance of their extra member. Lilo became anxious and thought they were all done for, but at that point, Demon took it upon herself to play a riveting solo. But it wasn't a solo for very long – all of a sudden Stitch was right next to her, holding a ukulele he had unearthed from somewhere. In a flash he joined in, showing off his mastery of his particular instrument and they continued in a wonderful and spell-binding duet.

A few bars later, with smiles on their faces, the rest of the band joined back in.

----------

Eventually the piece came to an end, the musicians bowed, and Stitch and Demon put their instruments aside to rejoin Lilo.

'You guys…' said Lilo is an exasperated way, shaking her head but grinning, 'I was worried. What _are_ we going to do with you?'

The experiments just looked sheepish. Lilo went to go back to the table and Stitch grabbed Demon's paw, leading her back. Behind them, the band was packing up. It was time for a different sort of entertainment.

As Lilo made sure the experiments were back in their seats, she found her big sister coming to check on her.

'Did I just see what I thought I saw?' Nani asked ominously.

'Err… yes?' replied Lilo, trying to think of a way to not get into trouble. 'Well… it all worked out, didn't it?' She gave a pleading smile, then noticed something. 'Hey Nani… where's David?'

Nani jerked her head towards the main stage, at the most prominent place in the luau. Lilo understood and settled back into her chair. The constant buzzing chatter around them calmed down and became a murmur of anticipation as the audience realised something was about to happen.

Lilo, Stitch and Demon sat in their seats, watching expectantly and intently.

With a yell, a spotlight appeared on the stage, and David materialised into it, as if from nowhere. He held two long batons into the air, and fireballs shot towards them, igniting each of the ends – Splodyhead's responsibility. Then with a whoop, he took one flaming stick in each hand, and twirled them around, spreading the fire through the air while the beating of drums accompanied his every move. He span the batons with complete confidence, never doubting his abilities, never showing fear at the burning ends which danced through that air at his command.

Stitch watched as he had done a few times before, feeling entertained. Demon watched the show as if mesmerised.

David moved his own body around the spinning fire, dancing about it playfully, pretending to his audience that he was invincible. Then, for his final move, he span the sticks in the air horizontally as he lay on his back. He took a quick drink from his nearby flask, keeping the contents in his mouth, then stood up and blew right into the flames. The fire billowed out enormously into the air, drawing that surprised gasp from the audience he always loved to hear. The accompanying drums stopped abruptly, and David held his sticks out and took a bow. The audience applauded.

Lilo clapped enthusiastically, even though she'd seen the same show dozens of time before. 'I think David's getting better,' she said as she sank back down into her seat after straining to see over the heads in the crowd. 'He didn't even set anything on fire this time.'

Stitch was looking at her and pointing towards the stage where David had been a few moments ago. Lilo gasped.

Demon was standing in the spotlight that was still on the stage, looking around her in wonder. Slowly, the attention of the audience shifted onto her as the expectation of another show grew.

Lilo was making frantic hand motions and trying to whisper, 'Get down!' but to no avail. Demon had either forgotten to continue concealing her extraterrestrial appendages or had taken them out on purpose, because she was fully formed on the stage – Lilo hoped nobody would notice.

As soon as a sufficient amount of the audience had their attention fixed on her, Demon started to move. She inhaled deeply, concentrated, and breathed out flames into her four open palms. The audience didn't know what to make of this, until Demon stopped breathing fire and appeared to be holding a fireball in each hand. Then, slowly and cautiously, she began to juggle them.

It was slow at first, and she concentrated on trying not to let one fall. But soon she found a rhythm to the catching, throwing and falling, and the pace of the act accelerated. All of a sudden the drum players who had been performing alongside David came back in again, helping her find a reliable metronome to work with.

The audience seemed pleased.

Demon looked about and smiled. Apparently this wasn't enough for her – she started blowing fire upwards, creating more balls in mid-air and continuing to juggle them. The speed at which she could keep all the hot balls of flame going had to increase, so at last she decided to stop and threw all the balls high above her head. As they dropped back to earth, she opened her mouth and seemed to swallow every one.

The watching crowd whooped and cheered, and this only spurred her on. She blew a continuous ring of fire into the air and leapt back and forth through it. She took spare tiki torches, lit the ends, and span them about while executing acrobatic moves, such as hand-stands. She was becoming bolder, and Lilo started to worry that the heat and excitement might get to her, and cause a programming relapse.

Stitch had no such concerns. He still fully believed that she would be able to control her own powers. Lilo hadn't felt the same warm flood of emotion they did when they were together. These feelings, if of a specific magnitude, triggered the reaction which led to light emitting from their antennae. And it was those feelings of love, thought and consciousness which told Stitch that he was forever safe from having to listen to his original programming again, and the same for her. They could think for themselves, act for themselves, and make their own decisions. They were ruled by no destiny, and free to choose their own future.

Stitch knew what he wanted his future to be. On the stage, Demon was truly enjoying herself, using her own powers but limiting them, delighting in the fire around her that also seemed to be a part of herself. Everything about her seemed to be filled with heat and passion, even her fluid movements reminded Stitch of a burning flame. She was confident, she was trusting her abilities, she was true to herself. And with the firelight flickering on her face, her rich colours, and the way she moved as if part of the fire itself… she was beautiful. Something that, until this moment, Stitch hadn't fully recognised. It wasn't an obvious sort of beauty that anybody could see right away. It was beauty that came from within, from being true and being herself, that matched with the fierce beauty of the fire she wielded. It was a sort of beauty that had to be revealed to you, but once it was found, its brilliance was as clear as day.

Stitch knew that his future was to be with her.

While the crowd continued to clap and applaud, Demon decided she'd had enough. For a final move, she copied David, and stood right at the front of the stage. She took a deep breath, and blasted a cloud of fire directly over the heads of the viewers. In unison the onlookers gasped, much like they had after David's finale, but this time it sounded more terrified than impressed. Demon could hear the change and froze, trying to look through the smoke and see what had happened.

Her final blast had been bigger, hotter and closer than David's… what if something had gone wrong? All the self-confidence and recklessness that had just been coursing through her vanished immediately. Passion and excitement died down, leaving her duller and less secure.

The smoke cleared away, showing that every person in the audience was perfectly fine, if a little shocked. Then they all stood up as one, and clapped louder than they had all evening.

Having already dropped from the stage, Demon made her way back to her own table. She was filled with relief, but exhausted and thrilled nonetheless.

As she approached the table, Stitch ran up and hugged her. She did nothing to resist.

'Well, that was… fun,' said Lilo, cautiously. 'But…'

She stopped as she saw Nani's shadow looming over the three of them. Lilo prepared herself for what was known as 'the worst' from her sister, but another voice interrupted them.

'Nani? Is this _your_ dog?' The man who ran the luau was standing in front of them, He had once employed Nani as a waitress.

'Well… y-yes… but…' Nani stuttered, 'I apologise, sir, this shouldn't have…'

'She's quite the little entertainer!' he said, with an unexpected note of jollity in his voice. 'A spectacular show, playing little tunes and performing death-defying fire tricks!' he laughed.

'Um… sir?' Nani was taken aback.

'If it's alright with you, I'd like your… friend… to be the luau's star performer! Think of it – the world's only fiddle-playing, fire-breathing dog… we'll be the most popular tourist spot on the whole island!'

Nani just smiled and nodded.

'Great!' he smiled, backing away to sort out some sort of contract agreement, 'and we might even squeeze in a double act…'

As he left, David strode up to Nani. 'What was that about?' he asked. 'Is everything okay?'

'It's… fine,' Nani replied, sounding not a little relieved. 'He wants to put our… "dog" up as a regular performer here.'

'Ah, great!' David grinned, kneeling down to pet Demon. 'I sure could use someone to help me out in my act.'

'Bark, bark,' said Demon.

David laughed, 'Your alien friends sure are interesting, Lilo. And they're mean surfers, too. Sometimes it's hard to think what the island would be like without them,' he sighed. 'And sometimes I wish I had a friend like you do, Lilo.'

Many glances were exchanged.

'Hey, David…' Lilo began, 'why don't you take care of Demon? She needs a home… and if she's gonna be working here, it'll be even better if you two team up. I bet you can put on the best show ever!'

'Really? No kidding?' David seemed delighted. 'I actually get a little alien pet of my own!'

----------

'Hey guys!' said Lilo, on their way back home. Nani was keeping an eye on her while she walked behind with the two experiments, since it had become dark.

'There was something I forgot to tell you,' Lilo said to Demon and Stitch. 'Something happened when I took Bonnie and Clyde back to the police station.'

'Gaba?' Stitch questioned.

'Well, when I took them back in, the police guys wanted to know why I'd wanted them. So I told them all about how they helped us solve a "crime"' here she used finger quotes, 'and something had been "stolen", and we were able to track down the person who did it because Bonnie and Clyde have "great criminal minds"… the guys at the station were so impressed, they decided to take the experiments out of their cell, and put them to work trying to solve crimes for them! Isn't that great?'

'Bootifa!' Stitch agreed.

'If they do it well, I bet they'll get let out sooner… but I think this is probably going to be their one true place, isn't it? I didn't like the idea of the experiments being in jail… sure, they tricked us, but it's not their fault they were created to steal things. It's like I told Gantu, remember?' she stroked Stitch's head as she walked. 'Experiments don't have to be ruled by their primary function. They're free to do… whatever they want.' She smiled and ran back ahead to Nani.

When they reached the house, Lilo was told to go straight to bed, and Nani went to find out how much damage Jumba and Pleakley had managed to do to the house in their absence. Stitch and Demon escaped out to the back yard, and climbed the wooden steps up to the hammock. They both climbed up into it, a place that had been the birth of so many events.

'So…' said Demon quietly, rocking slightly in the hammock, 'I guess I'll be going to David's tomorrow…'

'…Ih,' Stitch agreed slowly.

Demon sighed and looked at the house. 'I'll miss living here…'

'I'll… miss… _you_…' said Stitch. Demon just looked at him lovingly. 'I'll miss… just hearing your voice, all the time,' his effort at pronouncing the words correctly was obvious. 'And when you sang… so much more beautifully than Angel.'

The mention of the name had a momentary effect, but Demon seemed to force herself to ignore it.

'Angel made me believe in love,' said Stitch, wanting to put the matter to rest at last, 'but you're the one… who really showed me what it means.'

Feeling overcome, Demon pulled him tightly into a hug. They held each other for a few moments in silence, then Demon started to sing,

'Aloha 'oe,

Aloha 'oe,

E ke onaona noho

I ka lipo,

One fond embrace…'

She stopped, and seemed unable to continue. Stitch was still holding her, in awe of how beautiful the sound was, and now he nuzzled his face against her neck. Then he reached up to lick her cheek.

'Until we meet again,' she finished.

The warm, familiar, welcoming light was emanating from the antennae on their heads, as they had come to expect, amplifying the moment.

'I'm not really going to be gone,' she tried to justify, 'I won't be far away… we'll see each other often enough. Everything's going to be okay.'

Stitch said nothing.

'And if you and Lilo go out experiment hunting, and find one of our cousins, and you need any help… don't hesitate to let me know,' she said, trying to suppress the emotion threatening to show in her voice, 'and I'll come straight away…'

Stitch looked at her, then he pushed his nose softly against hers.

'Or, I could visit every day,' she continued, 'I'm sure David won't mind…'

Stitch placed his hands on her shoulders, then leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. At first Demon was shocked and bewildered, but after discovering how pleasant the sensation was, she returned it as best she could.

A few moments later, they broke apart.

'What,' asked Demon, 'was that?'

'_It's something people do on Earth to show affection for each other_,' Stitch replied, although his vocabulary wasn't large enough to explain in English. '_I sometimes see them doing it, but I never had a chance to try it until now_.'

'Can we do it again?' said Demon hopefully. Stitch gave a little laugh and they shared another kiss.

They lay on the hammock, side by side, watching the night sky and all the glimmers of light that had found a home in it. They felt immensely happy that they were not up there, in the infinite black spaces of the universe, but on a small little-known planet mostly covered with water, where they had found, against all odds, their one true place – with people who accepted them, and with each other.

That moment was perfect - the most profound sense of belonging a being could comprehend, and their one hope was that things should stay the same, now and for as long as possible. And somewhere, in the infinite reaches of space above them, a shooting star answered that wish.

_'Cause your kisses lift me higher,_

_Like the sweet song of a choir,_

_You light my morning sky,_

_With burning love._

_--------------------------------------------------_

Well, that's it. The story's over. Thank you so much for reading it. There should be a new chapter up on my lookup for you to view, especially for the ending.  
I didn't really expect anyone to understand my little "naga choota" joke, but if anyone did, then that's good. :)

Any feedback at all you can give is appreciated.

Thanks again.


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